Page 57 - EducationWorld Oct 2021

highly problematic since both groups contain very diverse chancellor of the University of the West Indies, warns that
communities with a multiplicity of beliefs and practices,” coronavirus’ impact on lower-income countries presents
says Dhavan. This distinction is often lost in the context of “an existential threat,” while World Bank expert Roberta
Western political correctness, where ‘Asians’ can be lumped Malee Bassett says “getting back to normal operations” in
together into a composite minority group. these nations “will be delayed in a way that will not be ex-
perienced in wealthier countries”.
THE RANKINGS Challenges are not confined only to poorer higher educa-
THE Top 200 tion systems, although funding does appear to be a major
sticking point in many cases. Brian Schmidt, vice chancellor
F YOU WERE ASKED TO NAME THE FASTEST-RIS- of the Australian National University, says if his country
ING higher education system in the world, the likely an- does not recover its pre-Covid market share of international
Iswer would be China. Results of the latest Times Higher students, “the reality is there is no other source of money
Education World University Rankings 2022 provide com- on the (same) scale, and we’re going to do less research
pelling evidence. The country now has two universities in and we’re going to teach our students with less resources”.
the Top 20 for the first time, with Peking and Tsinghua But despite the rough terrain ahead, university leaders
jointly ranked #16, and a remarkable ten institutions in the also tend to be eternal optimists, with presidents often im-
Top 200, up from seven last year and just three decade ago. plying that it would be impossible to do their job without an
But when looking at the full list of more than 1,600 in- overabundant sense of hope. It is this faith — particularly in
stitutions in this year’s table, and comparing this alongside the people who make up universities — that will see them
data from four years ago, you might be pushed to give a through the coming years.
different response. On that basis, Saudi Arabia and Egypt
would both be valid answers, suggesting that these nations JAPAN
might be most likely to emulate China’s success at the top Unique research institution
of the ranking in future years. None of India’s 1,005 uni-
versities — some of over 150 years vintage is on the Top JAPANESE UNIVERSITIES’ CHALLENGES IN
200 score board. attracting overseas talent and promoting the use
But at a time when countries and universities are still of English in scholarship are well-documented.
reeling from the shock of the Covid-19 pandemic, progress Yet, on an island hundreds of miles south of Tokyo, a small
for any country is not guaranteed. Sir Hilary Beckles, vice graduate school has achieved a level of internationalisation
and research impact almost unmatched in the country.
Countries with varsities in THE Top 200 Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST),
founded by the Japanese government a decade ago, pro-
No.of duces a disproportionate amount of high-quality research
Country institutions Top institution Rank
in Top 200 for its size. It is one of the world’s Top 10 institutions when
United States 57 California Institute of Technology 2 research quality is normalised by scale, according to Nature
Harvard University 2 Index. It is also highly internationalised, with 84 percent of
United Kingdom 28 University of Oxford 1 its Ph D students and 63 percent of faculty from overseas.
Germany 22 LMU Munich 32 “When I first stepped on campus, coming from Germany, I
Australia 12 University of Melbourne 33 thought, ‘This is the most international place I’ve ever vis-
China 10 Peking University 16 ited,’” recalls Peter Gruss, OIST’s president.
Tsinghua University 16 Prof. Gruss, who led Germany’s Max Planck Society for
Netherlands 10 Wageningen University & Research 53 12 years before joining OIST, says the key to his institution’s
Canada 7 University of Toronto 18 success is “high-trust funding”. Every professor, even at the
Switzerland 7 ETH Zurich 15 assistant level, is given five years financing unlinked to any
South Korea 6 Seoul National University 54 particular project or department. This freewheeling struc-
France 5 Paris Sciences et Lettres – ture “allows researchers to do something unique”.
PSL Research University Paris 40 “Why would a professor come out here? Because they
Hong Kong 5 University of Hong Kong 30 have cutting-edge, risky ideas, and they are not required
Sweden 5 Karolinska Institute 39 to write a research grant essay to finance their work,” he
Belgium 4 KU Leuven 42 says. Expansion of this funding structure — which is similar
Denmark 3 University of Copenhagen 96 to the European Research Council’s — “could be a game-
Italy 3 University of Bologna 172 changer for Japan,” Gruss argues. “You want to fund brains,
Spain 3 Pompeu Fabra University 156 not projects.”
Austria 2 University of Vienna 137 OIST operates very differently from conventional Japa-
Japan 2 The University of Tokyo 35 nese universities, where funding is given to “mainstream”

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