World-class university and organisational culture: Is diagnosing sub-culture important?
A short perspective
Globalization and internationalization are two interrelated constructs for understanding the changes occurring in the management, system, and structure of higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world. While the two are frequently considered the same, they differ in that globalization is the catalyst and internationalization is the response to it (Knight, 2004; Tight, 2019). For higher education institutions, changes for conformity to internationalization would means that they have to adapt to activities and processes of international or intercultural principles and bring these all ‘into the purpose, functions (primarily teaching/learning, research, service) or delivery higher education’ (Knight, 2004, p. 85). The literature suggests that countries have responded to internationalization of their HEIs through a catchphrase of world-class universities, of which research-intensive universities are the main characteristics (Huisman, 2010; Mok, 2014; Altbach, 2015). While constructing a world-class university requires large investments (Altbach, 2015 Salmi, 2009), financial support and national policies are necessary. Thus, national policies or tools of government have become the most noticeable attempts of countries to help stimulate their HEIs to become world-class universities, for instance in China (Woo, 2023; Hai do & Ngoc Ma,2023). The aim of such universities is to increase countries’ global competitiveness and influence. Despite such policy indicating an alignment and awareness of change with existing environmental demands, it seems to neglect the contextual and local nature of any organization. Clark (2001) argues that national policy sometimes backfires, in that it sometimes becomes an edifice that may block the change process and the achievement of university goals. Therefore, institution-level initiatives of change may become a wise start for HEIs to achieve their goals. As with the agenda of becoming world-class universities, we agree with Clark’s supposition; and thus, we argue that for HEIs to become world-class universities, change at the institutional level would be more effective than at the national policy level.
