Erratum: In the Shadow of Celebrity? World-Class University Policies and Public Value in Higher Education

Abstract

The growing popularity of the concept of world-class universities raisesthe question of whether investing in such universities is a worthwhileuse of public resources. Does concentrating public resources on the mostexcellent universities improve the overall quality of a higher educationsystem, especially if definitions of excellence and world-class are madeby external ranking organizations? This paper addresses that question bydeveloping a framework for weighing up trade-offs between institutionaland system performance, focusing on the potential system-wideimprovements which world-class university programmes (WCUPs) may bring.Because WCUPs are in a relatively early stage of their development,systemic effects are not yet clear. We therefore analyse the ex antereasons that policy makers have for adopting WCUPs to see if they atleast seek to create these systemic benefits.