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  • The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities Are Reshaping the World
  • Stephen P. Heyneman
Ben Wildavsky. The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities Are Reshaping the World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010. 240 pp. Cloth: $26.95. ISBN: 978-0-691-14689-8.

Those who liked The World Is Flat (Friedman, 2005) will probably like The Great Brain Race. Its journalistic style is accessible, almost beach reading. It covers why global higher education is important; how the “race” for university notoriety is emerging in Asia and Europe, the public perception of “world-class universities,” and why they are so difficult to obtain. Further, it delves into the nature of international rankings, how for-profit colleges and universities are filling a unique niche, and why issues of free trade in postsecondary education services are important.

In the course of writing the book, Ben Wildavsky has interviewed most of the major personalities In international higher education: Jamil Salmi, William Tierney, Andreas Schleicher, Edward Fiske, Philip Altbach, Daniel Fallon, Peggy Blumenthal, Jan Sadlak, Daniel Levy, and Simon Marginson.

Additionally, he has spoken with the leadership of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities, the American Association of Colleges and Universities, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), the Center for Higher Education Development (CHE), the California Institute of Technology, Qatar Foundation for Education, and the School of International and Public Affairs (Columbia University). He has sat through a (fascinating) seminar on “the relationship of government and religion” (pp. 48–49) taught in Abu Dhabi by the president of New York University.

This book, to say the least, has mastered the territory. Other than entertainment value, however, the book has two principal assets, and one problematic drawback.

The first asset is the book’s strongest chapter, which concerns international ranking. Wildavsky edited the U.S. News & World Report ranking system in the mid-2000s, and his knowledge of this arena is unsurpassed. He begins the story of college rankings in 1895 and works his way through the many new international ranking systems and their various weaknesses and strengths.

To his credit, he does not attempt to sell the notion of ranking. He makes a helpful distinction between ranking and rating, between science weighting systems (Shanghai Jiao Tong) and those which place weight on the humanities (Times Higher Education). Distinctions are also made between empirical (Times Higher Education) and “more holistic” methods (Fiske and Yale guides). New outcomes initiatives from the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and the Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO), originally drawn from the U.S. Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), are discussed in depth.

For reasons of accountability, Wildavsky’s conclusion is that more outcome assessments should be expected. Criticisms of particular ranking systems and of ranking in general are spelled out. The author specifies each objection and distortion created by systems of both ranking and rating but, in the end, advises readers that both will be an increasing part of the higher education landscape for the foreseeable future. In sum, he advises his readers to know the characteristics of each system but not slavishly follow their mandates. Unique high quality is its own reward.

What makes this approach to international higher education so lively is the combination of professional mastery of the material accompanying interviews with those involved in the process. Therein lies the book’s second principal asset.

For instance, he discusses ranking systems with the rectors of INSEAD (Institut Européen d’administration des affaires), the China-Europe International Business School, London School of Economics, KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology), and the Indian Institute of Technology. Wildavsky analyzes for-profit education but then includes descriptions by senior officials at Raffles Education, Laureate, De Vry, Sylvan Learning, and India’s IT training firm Aptech.

More problematic is what the book leaves out. It hardly mentions the role of the World Trade Organization in lowering education trade barriers. The (often vehement) objections to WTO’s role are given short shrift. The ethical requirements for achieving world-class universities are not even mentioned. The absence of world-class ethical standards may prevent China from achieving a world-class university...

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