The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities

Foreword
As the global environment for tertiary education expands—encompassing
not only the traditional student exchanges and scholarly sojourns but also
such issues as cross-border investments and market-type competition
among institutions—stakeholders in tertiary education must re-evaluate
their priorities and expectations. Historically, tertiary education institutions
were cultural landmarks for their home nations. They educated their
own students, trained their own academic staffs, and stored the cultural
and local histories of their regions. International pressures, largely the
result of global flows of tertiary education resources—funding, ideas, students,
and staff—have forced institutions to re-examine their missions.
Moreover, these pressures have forced governments, by far the largest
funding sources for tertiary education, to re-examine their commitments
to and expectations from their tertiary education institutions. One prominent
outcome of these debates has been the rise in league tables and rankings
of various sorts and, subsequently, the growing desire to compete for
a place at the top of a global hierarchy of tertiary education.
The World Bank has been promoting tertiary education for development
and poverty reduction since 1963. In the intervening years, the
World Bank sought policy developments and innovation to encourage
reforms leading to greater accessibility, equity, relevance, and quality in
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