The global race towards a “world class” university? An examination of university mission statements worldwide

• In Event: The internationalization of higher education: conceptualizations, strategies, and consequences

Proposal

Over the past few decades, rise in international ranking consciousness has pushed higher education institutions and governments to adopt a global outlook and see themselves as actors competing in a global market. This has led universities to reframe their missions and organizational purposes to one that is more globally oriented. However, how influential and expansive has ranking consciousness and subsequent global-orientation been in shaping organizational purposes and priorities of universities worldwide? In this paper, I seek to observe the extent to which universities display a global rhetoric by examining mission and vision statements of a cross-national sample of over 240 universities. Utilizing computational text analysis methods, I show how global aspirations are not limited to universities in Western, economically developed countries. Large public universities in developing countries display global aspirations in their mission, often explicitly articulating their goals of being a “world class” institution. Drawing upon neo-institutionalism, I discuss how universities, especially the younger universities in developing states, adopt a global language in articulating their vision and mission for institutional legitimacy and competitiveness, regardless of whether they create organizational structures to support their global aspirations.

Author

• Seungah Lee, Stanford University