opening academic year speech by frans van vught
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Speech by Frans van Vught entitled "International rankings, instutitional maps and the need to discuss the structure of Dutch higher education."TRANSCRIPT
University profilesInternational rankings, institutional maps
and the need to discuss the structure of
Dutch higher education
Frans van Vught
Opening academic year 2012/13
Maastricht University, 3 September 2012
UNIVERSITY PROFILES | International rankings, institutional maps and the need to discuss the structure of Dutch higher education
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1. National innovation policies
Over the last two and a half decades the higher education systems of the developed countries have
undergone unprecedented transformation. Much of this change has been motivated by an increased
appreciation of the influential role that human capital now plays in the new global economy. As the
sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf (1979) perceptively observed, higher education has become the primary
determinant of an individual’s ‘life chances,’ and as a consequence all developed countries have adopted
a higher education policy of ‘massification’ (Trow, 2000), rapidly expanding first and second level degree
enrolments of their higher education systems. National debates about higher education reform, therefore,
have first of all been dominated by concerns with the educational function of higher education institutions
and have focused attention on the issues of university access, the efficient financing of university edu-
cation, and quality assurance.
Over the same period there has also been a growing appreciation among policymakers of the way
in which international forces have altered the basis of economic development (Soete, 2006). In the
global market, natural resources are no longer a key factor in economic growth. There is an observable
trend in many countries towards de-industrialisation, increased international outsourcing of traditional
industries as well as routine service functions, and a corresponding government concern about how
to promote innovation and technological change as a principal means of sustaining international
competitiveness. In many countries, national innovation policies have begun to shape and supersede
traditional higher education and research policies (Balzat, 2006; Nelson, 1993; OECD, 2005).
Over the last 25 years we have realised that international forces are changing the basis
of economic development. Markets are becoming increasingly interconnected. Goods, services, capital,
labour, and knowledge move around the world with increasing speed in order to find the best conditions.
Natural resources are no longer the dominant factor in economic growth. We live in a globalised world.
Generally speaking, it appears that globalisation leads to increasing national specialisation.
his process of specialisation, which is amplified by scale and learning effects, creates a reallocation
of production processes between countries and forces nations to look for their international
comparative advantages. Given this situation, national governments try to identify and develop their
specific strengths. They try to increase their location attractiveness for business firms; they try to attract
mobile production factors; they develop their sociocultural profiles; and they try to increase their
innovation capacity.
Many nations now seek to promote innovation as a key driver of economic growth. In particular
Western industrialised nations try to find their comparative advantages in the production of knowledge-
intensive goods and services. To better compete in a globalised economy they increasingly focus on
knowledge, creativity, and innovation. In this context higher education and research organisations have
become important targets for national policy-makers as they are major contributors to the knowledge
economy environment.
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2. Effects on universities
Globalisation and the increased focus of national governments on innovation policies have had signifi-
cant impact on the international higher education landscape. Let me explore three major strands of this
impact, all of which constitute major challenges to universities and other higher education institutions
and, as I will argue, create an urgent need for them to strategically develop their ‘institutional profiles.’
Mission overload
Universities are increasingly facing rising expectations and an expanding set of challenges. They are
expected to address the world’s major problems – eg those related to our natural environment; the settle-
ment and movement of people; pandemics; poverty; terrorism etc. The European Union, for example,
has formulated a number of ‘grand challenges’ that will be the leading topics in their new research
funding program, Horizon 2020. Worldwide there is widespread expectation that universities should be
able to research an increasingly broad range of problems in an ever-growing holistic fashion and at an
accelerated pace. As our societies become more knowledgeable, universities come under increasing pressure
to expand, transfer and apply new knowledge in order to solve the problems confronting the world.
In addition, these expectations are becoming increasingly diversified. Universities are expected to
produce the knowledge and human capital required to meet the needs of the modern knowledge society,
playing a central role in innovation processes, contributing to regional development, increasing social
inclusion and participating in to the resolution of global problems. Governments tend to translate
these multiple expectations into roles and responsibilities, often backed by earmarked funding or with
conditions attached to general budgets. Universities themselves tend to take on a wider set of activities,
partly through political and social pressure and partly in response to market opportunities.
The result is an accumulation of mission elements, often leading to mission overload, which blurs
strategic vision and risks becoming a serious distraction from core business. Precisely because of these
increasing expectations and challenges, universities need to reassess and clarify their missions, goals
and priorities, carefully defining their institutional profiles.
Global research competition
On a worldwide scale, company labs are increasingly putting an end to their basic research activities.
The pressure in a number of industries to quickly secure major revenue streams has led to the scaling
back or closure of industrial research laboratories with the capacity for long-term research. Instead,
companies are concentrating their research efforts on short-term results, while adopting a strategic
global approach to more basic research which is increasingly reliant on offshore partnerships, academic
collaboration and outsourcing to established networks of scientific expertise.
In order to redesign their systems of higher education and research and to adapt them to the new
demands of globalisation and competitiveness, national innovation policies appear to take various
forms. In a comprehensive international comparative study, my colleague David Dill and I identified two
broad categories of national innovation policy strategy (Dill & Van Vught, 2010). The first and largest
category comprises what could be called prioritisation strategies. These policies are characterised
by features such as foresight analyses in the science and technology sectors, priority allocation
and concentration of resources, and quality assessments of research outputs. They reflect the
notion of national planning, including the well-known drawbacks of central steering.
We can cite many examples of prioritisation strategies; let me mention just a few. In Australia
both the Commonwealth and state governments have engaged in research priority setting, emphasizing
areas of science that will enhance economic competitiveness. In Finland the funding agency for tech-
nology and innovation, TEKES, explicitly funds university research programs in selected technology
fields seen as priorities in terms of Finnish industrial development. Even in the US, the National Science
and Technology Council recently defined a number of interagency research programs in areas deemed
of strategic importance to the national economy.
The other category of innovation policies places an emphasis on market forces and competition. The
policy characteristics of these competition strategies include an emphasis on competitive allocation
of resources, encouraging entrepreneurial university behaviour, deregulating the higher education
sector, and encouraging multiple sources of funding. The pre-eminent example of this strategy is the
US federal science policy with its emphasis on a national marketplace of competing private and state
universities, limited federal control, and the competitive allocation of funding by research funding
agencies. But aspects of this type of competition strategy can also be found – to a greater or lesser
degree – in a number of other countries. Canada, Germany and Japan, for example, have all adopted a
competitive approach to strengthening research training, through either competitive national fellow-
ships to support PhD students or competitive grants for the development of selected research schools.
The United Kingdom has diversified the funding base of their universities by offering competitive ‘third
sector’ funding to promote greater knowledge transfer between universities and industry.
The Netherlands offers a clear example of the prioritisation strategy of innovation. A few years ago the
Dutch national Innovation Platform identified a set of ‘national key areas’ where both fundamental
research and knowledge transfer should be increased. Meanwhile our national innovation
policy has developed into a strategy of coordinated ‘top sectors’ with ‘innovation contracts’, ‘human
capital agendas’ and ‘general framework agreements’ with both the university and the HBO sectors.
The national Review Committee for Higher Education and Research, which I have the honour to chair,
recently analysed the submissions of all the universities and HBO institutions against their future
profiles, including the extent to which these submissions reflected the identified national innovation
priorities. Also in the Netherlands, current higher education and research policies are to a large extent
influenced by our national innovation agenda.
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institutional profile – appears to be a key knock-on effect of national innovation strategies in many
higher education systems.
The higher education literature suggests two key factors assumed to have an impact on the level of
diversity: governmental regulation and market competition. Governmental regulation (for instance a
binary system regulation) is thought to limit the scope for higher education institutions to develop
their own profiles and so can be expected to limit diversity. Market competition is thought to offer
leeway for institutional profiling and therefore is assumed to lead to higher levels of diversity. However,
empirical research has shown these to be false assumptions. On the one hand considerable market
competition, in particular in the US higher education system, does not necessarily lead to more diversity
(Birnbaum, 1983), while on the other hand regulated binary systems often show more diversity than less
regulated non-binary systems (Huisman et al., 2007). It has been suggested that the strategic positioning
of individual higher education institutions, and particularly their ability to occupy favourable niche
positions, may play an important role in terms of the overall level of diversity among higher education
systems. Not only do higher education institutions react to the constraints and opportunities in their
environment (including governmental regulation and funding), they also initiate behaviour that allows
them to carve out sustainable positions from which to project their specific profiles, competing only
with a specific group of often international institutions with similar profiles (Van Vught, 2008; Fumasoli
& Huisman, 2013).
The question of increasing institutional diversity in higher education systems thus brings us again to
‘institutional profiling’. Governments intending to increase this diversity increasingly focus on the strategic
profiles created by higher education institutions. Making these profiles transparent and agreeing
on how they fit in the overall higher education system is an effective way to diversify higher education
systems. There is incentive for universities and other higher education institutions to sharpen their
profiles and to develop them as key strategic tools in positioning their institution in both a national system
and international context. Institutional profiles are an effective instrument for enhancing visibility and
reputation, and providing justification for their very existence.
National innovation policies, with their emphasis on the application of new knowledge, serve to
encourage universities to participate in these new global research networks. In effect there appears to
be increasing competition between nations to make themselves attractive to footloose corporate R&D
investments. In their innovation policies nations aim to prioritise and concentrate their own research
expenditures to achieve competitive scale and quality. In addition, nations increasingly show a willing-
ness to coordinate their own research investments with large international research budgets, like those
of the European Union.
As a result universities are confronted with the challenge of selecting and investing in those
research fields in which they can compete on a global scale. This often requires risky investments in
major facilities, equipment and research teams for the longer term, more often than not expanding
the normal 3- to 5-year terms of conventional research funding schemes. In the present global world of
research it is the ability to marshal resources, including intellectual capability, that allows a univer-
sity to achieve a significant advantage ahead of the competition. Strategic research management has
become one of the most important aspects of modern university leadership.
Very few universities have sufficient capacity to compete alone in the contemporary context in
any research field. The most successful universities worldwide collaborate with others, including their
competitors, at different points along the supply chain. They work together when they do not have
specific distinctive competitive advantages, when they can share common costs or when they see
opportunities to expand the scale of their activities or their joint reputation. Partner selection in priority
research fields therefore becomes extremely important and involves consideration of multiple factors,
including complementary capabilities, reputation for reliability, and academic prestige. Modern university
research management implies a clear view of an institution’s research strengths and weaknesses in a
competitive global research market and the courage to select and develop a set of research field priorities
as a major defining part of the university profile.
Higher education system diversity
In addition to the creation and application of new knowledge, the other crucial dimension of any
national innovation policy is human capital formation (Ritzen, 2012). Higher education organisations are
urged to increase participation rates and particularly the supply of well-trained ‘knowledge workers’ in
the prioritised sectors in order to allow the successful implementation of the national innovation policy.
Expanding higher education participation requires an increase in the diversity of educational
provision in terms of curriculum content and orientation, quality and price. The ‘massification’ of higher
education implies the need not only to expand higher education systems but especially to diversify the
supply forms of higher education in order to reflect the needs of a greater diversity of potential learners.
This is why globalisation and the focus on innovation in many countries appear to trigger diversification
policies in higher education. The urge to diversify – both in terms of programs offered and in terms of
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justified by scientific theories, logically coherent sets of statements which, moreover, can be tested to
see whether they are consistent with the facts.
Failing scientific theories, sports have been organised with (democratic) forums that have been
accepted as the bodies authorised to set rules. The conceptual frameworks behind sports league tables
are well-established: the rules of the game define the winners and leagues tables are created from the
results. Yet those rules have been designed by humans and may be subject to change: in the 1980s-90s
football associations went from awarding two points for winning a match to three points, changing
not only tactics in the game (more attacks late in a drawn match), but to some extent the league table
outcomes as well.
This disquisition into sports illustrates the lighter side of the epistemological point about university
rankings. All rankings are made up of selected indicators that imply the conceptual framework through
which reality is addressed. There is a body in charge of choosing those indicators. In sports, such bodies
are recognised organisations and it is accepted that they design and redefine the rules of the game,
including the indicators. It is equally understood that rules and indicators are not derived scientifically
but are artificial and vary by sport: rugby and football are different and it is impossible to say whether
the number one rugby team is a better sports team than the number one football team. Because there
is no such thing as a theory of sports per se. There are theories about sport psychology, sports training
or sports fans’ behaviour, but not a scientific theory of the ‘best’ sport.
The rules of the university rankings game are equally arbitrary, because there is no scientific theory of
‘the best university’ nor even of quality of higher education. But unlike sports, there are no official bodies
accepted as having the authority to define the rules of the game, nor is there an explicit understanding
that different conceptual ranking frameworks (using different indicators) define distinctly different
competitions and produce different and incomparable rankings. There is no understanding, in other
words, that the Shanghai ranking, for example, is a ‘game’ that is as different from the Times Higher
ranking game as rugby is from football. Equally, there is no understanding that the organisation making
up a set of rules and indicators has no more authority to do so than any other organisation.
The issue with the usual university rankings is that they tend to be presented as if their collection of
indicators reflects the definitive quality of an institution; they have the pretension, in that sense, of being
guided by what is in reality a non-existent theory of higher education quality.
The current global university rankings produce comparisons of university performance profiles. But
they do so, generally speaking, on the basis of a weak methodology, leading to substantial validity
problems (Van Vught & Ziegele, 2012). In addition, a large majority of the universities included in these
rankings are judged on the basis of a profile that can hardly be interpreted as appropriate. Current
global rankings create comparisons based on the apparent assumption that all universities should be
assessed as comprehensive research-intensive universities with a substantial research volume in the
sciences and medicine.
3. University rankings
Since we have been talking about institutional profiles now for awhile already, let us briefly discuss
what they are. I see institutional profiles as the descriptions of what higher education institutions are
and/or want to be. Institutional profiles display what institutions do, how good they are at it, and how
they compare to other institutions. Institutional profiles can be divided into activity profiles and perfor-
mance profiles. Activity profiles describe the actual activities of an institution in terms of focus, volume,
priorities, etc. Activity profiles are descriptive – they map the set of activities that defines the various
tasks that an institution sets for itself. Performance profiles, on the other hand, show how well an insti-
tution performs these tasks. Performance profiles are evaluative and imply a judgement in terms of the
output and impact of an institution’s activities.
Generally speaking, an institution’s profile reflects the dimensions of its mission. These can be the well-
known basic dimensions of teaching & learning, research and knowledge exchange. But an institution
may wish to emphasise other dimensions as equally important aspects of its mission, such as interna-
tional orientation or regional engagement.
By providing information about the activities and/or performance of a higher education institution in
terms of the dimensions of its mission, institutional profiles serve as transparency instruments allowing
both internal and external actors (including students, funders, governments) to get to know the institution
and to assess it as a potential fit with their needs and priorities.
As transparency tools, institutional profiles are related to rankings and league tables. But in what way
are they related? Let us explore for a moment the miraculous world of academic rankings and university
league tables.
Nowadays league tables are all around us. In sports, for instance, there are seasonal league tables for
baseball and football and lists ranking the number of times cyclists have won the Tour de France. Since
the early part of the 20th century we also have league tables in higher education and research, global
university rankings usually showing Harvard as the best university in the world, followed by the names
of a number of other globally renowned universities. But while sporting league tables are well-accepted,
university rankings remain hotly debated – and rightly so. Aside from the well-known methodological
criticism, there is an important epistemological argument why university rankings should be
approached with extreme caution. Let me briefly outline this argument.
Each and every observation of reality is theory-driven: every observation of a slice of reality is driven
by the conceptual framework being used. In the scientific debate, this statement has been accepted
at least since Popper’s work (Popper, 1980): he showed abundantly that theories are ‘searchlights’ that
cannot encompass all of reality, but necessarily highlight only certain aspects of it. He also showed that
scientific knowledge is ‘common sense writ large’, meaning that the demarcation between common
sense and scientific knowledge is that the latter has to be justified rationally. Scientific knowledge is
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THE RANKING 2007 - 2011
Figure 2: Ranking positions of Dutch universities in the Times Higher Education Ranking (THE), 2007 – 2011
The third global university ranking is the QS Top Universities Ranking, named after Quacquarelli
Symond Ltd, a company that used to produce the rankings for the Times Higher Education (until 2010)
but also offers its own league tables. According to the QS Ranking, the best university of the Netherlands
is still the University of Amsterdam, while Leiden and Utrecht appear to be fighting for 2nd and 3rd place.
Maastricht is ranked around 100th out of the world’s best 300 universities.
Nevertheless, as we all know, these rankings are now reality, and they are here to stay. Let us see what the
most prominent global rankings have to say about the performance of Dutch universities in recent years.
According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also known as the ’Shanghai
Ranking‘, the best university in the Netherlands is Utrecht, which according to the Shanghai Ranking
scored a position of around 50th out of the 500 best universities in the world. Leiden University comes
second (around 70th). Another four Dutch universities are in the top 150 (University of Amsterdam, the
Free University Amsterdam, University of Groningen and Radboud University Nijmegen). Maastricht
University climbed to within the top 300 universities worldwide in 2011.
SHANGHAI RANKING 2007 – 2011
Figure 1: Positions of Dutch universities in the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), 2007 – 2011
The second ranking is the Times Higher Education (THE) ranking. According to this, the University of
Amsterdam was the best Dutch university from 2007 to 2009 (ranking around 50th among the top 200
worldwide), but after 2010 (when the THE ranking changed its methodology) first Eindhoven University
of Technology and then later (in 2011) Utrecht University became the Dutch ‘number 1’. Maastricht University
is now 197th in the THE’s ranking of the top 200 universities ( just before the University of Twente in 200th
position). However, as I am sure Maastricht was happy to report, also according to the THE Ranking,
they were in the top 20 of the young universities worldwide.
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LEIDEN RANKING 2011/12
All countries Europe NL
University of Twente 64 11 1
Wageningen University 69 13 2
Erasmus University Rotterdam 74 17 3
Free University Amsterdam 75 18 4
Eindhoven University of Technology 84 24 5
Utrecht University 92 26 6
Leiden University 100 30 7
University of Amsterdam 104 31 8
Delft University of Technology 115 35 9
University of Groningen 148 56 10
Radboud University Nijmegen 183 76 11
Maastricht University 206 86 12
University of Tilburg - - -
Open University - - -
Table 1: Ranking positions of the Dutch universities in the Leiden ranking (CWTS), 2011/12
These different league tables demonstrate the substantial variety in the outcomes of international
rankings, which can be attributed primarily to differences in methodologies and particularly in the
selection of indicators applied in these rankings. The Shanghai ranking consists of a combination of
bibliometric indicators (largely research activity and little research impact), data on Nobel Prize and Field
Medal winners and a calculation of the productivity per staff member. Due to its selection of indicators, this
ranking has a strong bias towards research, particularly in the natural sciences (for instance, publications
in Science and Nature are counted twice). The current Times Higher Education ranking combines a
number of bibliometric indicators with a worldwide reputation survey and has added some indicators
on the learning environment, research volume, internationalisation and industry-related research. The
reputation survey (by which international academics are asked about the ‘quality’ or rather the reputation
of universities around the world) and the bibliometric analysis each make up more than one third of
the ranking score; the learning indicators count for only 15%, while the other elements are even (much)
smaller. The THE ranking is still very much a ‘reputation ranking’ (although less so than before) and is
largely focused on research. The QS ranking consists of a reputation survey among academics (making
up 40% of the rankings), a reputation survey among employers (another 10%), a research impact analysis,
a staff-to-student ratio (each 20%) and data about internationalisation of staff and students (each 5%).
The QS is first and foremost a reputation ranking reflecting the opinions and knowledge of academics
(and to a lesser extent employers) about the assumed ‘quality’ of a university. Like the other two rankings
it is mainly focussed on research. The Leiden ranking is entirely based on bibliometric indicators and aims
to compare research organisations with impact measures taking into account the differences between
QS RANKING 2007 - 2011
Figure 3: Ranking positions of Dutch universities in the Quacquarelli Symonds Ranking (QS), 2007 – 2011
Finally, let me show you a table of the Leiden ranking outcomes for 2011/12. The Leiden ranking is a bib-
liometric impact ranking of approximately 1000 universities worldwide based on their research pub-
lication and citation data. According to the Leiden ranking the University of Twente has the greatest
research impact of all the Dutch universities, which places it at 64th worldwide. Maastricht University
is ranked 206th worldwide.
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4. Mapping university profiles
There is another way to analyse university profiles. Rather than taking a specific ideal type as the base
for comparing a variety of profiles and concluding that those universities lacking the ideal type profile
should rank at the lower end of the league tables, it begins by making the range of profiles visible and
transparent and only comparing universities with similar (or largely similar) profiles. Rather than com-
paring all types of fruit in one overall approach, this approach compares apples with apples and oranges
with oranges. This is called ‘mapping’ and it aims to portray the specific activity profiles of individual
institutions in a number of profile dimensions. The European U-Map tool (Van Vught, 2009) has been
developed to allow the creation and analysis of these profiles, offering snapshots of an institution’s
activities on different dimensions. U-Map can be accessed online and offers two tools (the Profile Finder
and the Profile Viewer) that allow stakeholders to analyse institutional profiles and carry out specific
comparative studies (benchmarking). The six dimensions of U-Map are:
• Teaching & learning
• Student profile
• Research involvement
• Regional engagement
• Involvement in knowledge exchange
• International orientation
For each dimension, sets of indicators have been developed, with institutional profiles comprising the
scores on all or a certain number of the dimensions. A profile reflects those areas where an institution
is active and indicates the intensity of activities per dimension. The U-Map profile of Maastricht University
looks as follows:
U-MAP UNIVERSITY MAASTRICHT
Figure 4: U-Map presentation of the University of Maastricht
disciplines. This ranking concentrates on research impact and accordingly only judges universities’ re-
search performance.
All these rankings appear to be based on the assumption that research is the most important
dimension of a university’s profile and that university reputation is driven by research. In addition, several
rankings value research in the natural sciences and medicine more than research in other fields. The
university profiles that are implicitly being assessed in these rankings are profiles with large research
volumes especially in the sciences and with strong performance in these fields. The current global rankings
largely project a one-dimensional image of a ‘world-class university’, luring institutions that take these
rankings seriously (and I am afraid that many do, although they may deny it) into imitative behaviour,
academic drift and even manipulation and obfuscation of their actual performance.
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A few European universities with profiles strongly resembling Maastricht’s are the Ecole Polytechique
Fédérale de Lausanne (a well-known and highly reputable Swiss university), Telecom Bretagne (one of
France’s most prestigious Grandes Ecoles) and the University of Southern Denmark (a merged university
in Odense). In the Dutch university system the Universities of Groningen and Nijmegen appear to have
profiles rather similar to Maastricht’s, and to a lesser extent this goes for Erasmus University Rotterdam
and the University of Tilburg as well.
The point I’d like to stress is that comparing the performance of universities with similar profiles
is far more interesting and useful than ranking universities with a wide range of differing profiles. Of
course it is up to the universities to choose their profiles but once this is done, it allows for effective and
useful benchmarking processes. In addition, a university that knows its profile well and knows which
counterpart institutions have similar profiles is able to identify to external stakeholders the role and
position it occupies within its higher education system and how it wants to be held accountable. In
this sense institutional profiles are also an important instrument for assessing the effectiveness and
efficiency of higher education system structures.
This profile shows that Maastricht University has a strong profile in teaching & learning (dark blue)
as well as in research (red) and that it is extremely active in terms of international orientation (yel-
low). The most recent data show that the percentage of international students at Maastricht University
is 43%, well ahead of universities like Wageningen (23.5%), Twente (15.4%) and Delft (14.7%) (source:
1CijferHO-2011). Maastricht University rightfully presents itself as an international research-intensive
university that is “leading in learning”.
The U-Map database also allows us to find universities that are comparable to the Maastricht profile:
U-MAPS OF COMPARABLE UNIVERSITIES
Figure 5: U-Map presentations of a selected number of universities with fairly similar profiles
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(U21, 2012). However, if you take a closer look at this study, it appears that the Dutch universities do not
reach this position because their international enrolment or resource levels are so high but because of
the large volume of academic output and particularly because our regulatory environment is seen as
attractive. Compared to other systems, the Dutch higher education system is seen as having a favourable
policy context, in particular because of the significant institutional autonomy.
A crucial question of course is whether our university system can remain at this level of international
performance and quality, and perhaps climb the ladder even further, or whether we should expect that our
position will weaken over the years to come. The most recent (2012) Shanghai ranking seems to suggest
that we are loosing some ground to the international competition. We should keep in mind that
this competition is strong and that many governments worldwide are trying to make sure that their
universities will operate at the cutting edge of intellectual and scientific development and are among
the selected group of ‘world-class universities’ (Salmi, 2009). Let us have a general look at what is going
on in a number of countries with respect to the international competition for knowledge and talent.
It is often argued that the international forces of globalisation and the increasing importance of
the modern knowledge economies combined with a massive future growth in learner demand around
the world will give rise to a radically different paradigm in the supply structures of higher education
over decades to come. Higher education system structures may very well change significantly, involving
both a diversification in institutional providers and novel combinations of different institutional profiles.
During a recent discussion with some 100 university presidents from around the world a future
scenario for the overall global higher education provision structure was developed. This scenario shows
the following types of institutions (Gallagher, 2012):
• a top echelon (perhaps around 50) mainly stand-alone highly prestigious, highly resourced compre-
hensive universities
• international consortia of a next group of (perhaps 100–200) universities, sharing resources and
offering joint and mutually accredited programs
• a range of niche institutions with specialisations in a few fields of research and education, both corpo-
rate and as public-private partnerships, some of them linking with professional occupational practice
• a great diversity of primarily local and regional teaching institutions, both public and private, as well
as in public-private partnerships
• a set of high-tech, primarily virtual global teaching providers.
Whether such a scenario will appear to be realistic or not, is not so much the point. It underlines that
in any national higher education system the continued international competition for knowledge and
talent leads to some crucial challenges for higher education and research policies.
First, it should be clear that a major implication of the current international developments in higher
education and research is that it is no longer enough for higher education policy to be nationally ref-
erenced. In the context of the increasing international competition for talent and the need for varying
5. Higher education system structures
The Dutch university system may be judged as one of the best in the world. All Dutch universities (with
the exception of the Open University which has a special position in the system) are to be found among
the world’s top 500 universities. If we accept for the moment the choices of indicators and methods used
by the Shanghai and THE rankings, we can, based on their data, make a ranking of the ‘best’ university
systems in the world. In the following table this ranking is produced by calculating the ratio of the
number of universities in a country in the rankings divided by the total number of universities in the
country (see table 2).
THE ‘BEST’ UNIVERSITY SYSTEMSShanghai 2010 THE 2010
The Netherlands 1 (.92) 1 (.77)
Israel 2 (.88) -
Sweden 3 (.69) 4 (.38)
New Zealand 4 (.63) 12 (.13)
Switzerland 5 (.58) 2 (.50)
Norway 5 (.58) 11 (.14)
Denmark 7 (.50) 4 (.38)
Hong Kong 7 (.50) 3 (.40)
Belgium 9 (.47) 12 (.13)
Australia 10 (.44) 9 (.18)
Ireland 11 (.43) 7 (.29)
Germany 12 (.38) 6 (.36)
Finland 12 (.38) 16 (.07)
UK 14 (.33) 8 (.25)
Canada 15 (.32) 12 (.13)
Table 2: Ranking of higher education systems based on Shanghai 2010 and THE 2010.
The ratio is: nr of universities in ranking / nr of universities in system (Goedegebuure, 2011).
This table underlines that the Dutch universities are of a high academic standard and operate inter-
nationally at the higher levels of intellectual and scientific development. The Dutch university system
indeed is an academic mountain plateau with some smaller peaks that, however, do not reach the
heights of the giant summits of some universities in the US and UK.
A recent international report by Universitas 21 on the performance of higher education systems
worldwide places the Dutch system at a very respectable 9th position in a ranking of 48 higher education
systems. Better systems are found only in the US and Canada, Scandinavia, Switzerland and Australia
UNIVERSITY PROFILES | International rankings, institutional maps and the need to discuss the structure of Dutch higher education UNIVERSITY PROFILES | International rankings, institutional maps and the need to discuss the structure of Dutch higher education
20 21
the quality and international appeal of both German research and postgraduate training. The German
Wissenschaftsrat recently suggested that the German higher education system as a whole should
now be further diversified in order to improve its performance. The council wants to put an end to the
“delegitimisation of a large part of the quality spectrum” by only emphasising research excellence, and
suggests new types of institutional profiles which do not fall in the binary typology of universities and
Fachhochschulen (Wissenschaftsrat, 2010).
In France the government announced in 2008 the implementation of the plan now labelled as ‘Poles
de Recherche et d’Enseignement Supérieur’ (PRES) of which the explicit purpose is to establish a number
of world-class universities. The intention is to have universities, grandes écoles and research institutions
align their objectives and efforts and to benefit from a shared utilisation of their infrastructures.
Twenty-one PRES comprising 60 universities and many other institutions were in place by early 2011.
England has had a unified system since the abolition of the binary divide. In the English system
universities are higher education institutions accredited to award degrees and having enrolments of
at least 1000 students. There is a low degree of formal structural diversity but the informal diversity
has increased as result of stronger competition and greater influence of student demand. According to
the UK’s Department for Business Innovation & Skills the size and shape of UK higher education “will
emerge from decisions taken in response to user demand and the changing environment of the 21st
century” (www.bis.gov.uk/he). However, in Wales a complete sector restructuring is envisaged in order
to create more diversity and to position the higher education system to be “the best it can be for the
funds available” (HEFCW, 2011). Similarly in Ireland a national Strategy for Higher Education has been
published arguing a basic need for structural change in order to meet the diverse learning require-
ments, develop critical mass, create sustainability and ensure greater effectiveness and efficiency at the
system level (HEA, 2012).
In Denmark and Finland the governments initiated a number of institutional mergers with the aim of
strengthening the research function of their systems. In Denmark reform began in 2007, and there were
a number of mergers of universities and research institutes, leading to a reduction from 12 universities
to 8 and the integration of research institutes. In Finland at the beginning of 2010 three new universities
were established as a result of mergers of existing institutions while two universities were given special
status as foundations under private law.
In Australia a categorisation of ‘Higher Education Providers’ was introduced in 2011, in order to formalise
a number of key elements of the diversity of the Australian system. This categorisation consists of 5 higher
education provider types that are all allowed to use the label ‘university’ but that are clearly different
in profile (Australian Government, 2011). In addition Australia has launched a model of compacts, which
so far is no more than a performance-based reporting contract model but with the further option to
develop into a funding model of institutional profiles. In several US states (Maryland, Michigan, North
Dakota) these ‘profile funding models’ are already in place, often with the intention of applying perfor-
degrees of scale in contemporary research, many countries are intensifying investment in their lead-
ing universities. A country that wants to stay involved in the global competitive knowledge creation
processes cannot afford to ignore the international position and reputation of its universities and
research institutions.
A second implication is that a narrow focus on strengthening only the top universities will not be
sufficient to meet the wider national and regional innovation needs. The problem is that elite institu-
tions tend to collaborate only with each another, both nationally and internationally, in matters such as
research, student exchange and recognition of qualifications. But national policies also need to address
the profiles and positions of those higher education institutions that are not in the international elite
club. For governments the policy challenge is not only whether to create or sustain elite university
strength (although this is certainly an issue) but also how to balance that aim against other aspects
of the national interest. Governments find it difficult to treat institutions differently and to formally
mark institutional differences. On their side higher education institutions find it difficult to select and
define profiles that differ from the idealised profile of the research university. Yet in any national higher
education system there should be status attached to teaching well, developing graduates for profes-
sional practice, translating research into applications to solve business and community problems and
contributing to regional development. Higher education and research policies are more effective if they
permit some institutions to do a few things very well, rather than having them all doing a lot of things
only reasonably well.
The conclusion is that there is an increasing need for public policy to comprehend the totality of the
higher education and research system. Only such a system-wide policy will allow a government to offer
development opportunities to all institutions (by contributing to a diverse set of institutional profiles),
provide access for students (through pathways enabling mobility within the system) and create the
best conditions for the country to engage in high-level global research (through directed and targeted
research investment).
Until the first half of the 20th century relative little policy attention was given to matters of the formal
structure of higher education and research systems. The policy focus was largely on issues of accessibility,
quality, funding and student retention. But in an increasing number of countries over the last 10 years
or so there has been a noticeable shift of policy attention to the structures of higher education systems
and the profiles of the institutions that make up these systems. Let me mention a few examples.
The German Excellence Initiative, which started in 2006, has been set up to create more world-class
excellence in the German higher education system, particularly in research and research training. In the
two rounds that have taken place 37 ‘excellence clusters’ have been selected and have received an average
budget of €32m each. These excellence clusters aim to establish internationally visible and competitive
‘research beacon’ universities, able to collaborate with non-university research organisations (such as
the Max-Planck institutions), Fachhochschulen and the private sector. The second round enables the
institutions that have already won cluster funding to apply for extra funding in order to further stimulate
UNIVERSITY PROFILES | International rankings, institutional maps and the need to discuss the structure of Dutch higher education UNIVERSITY PROFILES | International rankings, institutional maps and the need to discuss the structure of Dutch higher education
22 23
38 HIGH PERFORMING UNIVERSITIES COMPAREDmance-based funding in order to create outcomes that are aligned with state strategic goals and the
objective of creating a high level of institutional diversity (Sparks & Waits, 2011).
The new perspective in higher education policy worldwide is clearly one of structure. The configuration
of national higher education systems is increasingly being analysed in the context of the global competition
or talent and knowledge. National higher education policies cannot avoid trying to optimise their higher
education and research systems in terms of excellence and diversity.
The Dutch higher education and research system belongs among the better systems in the world.
Dutch higher education institutions rightfully enjoy a large autonomy. And Dutch universities generally
score well in international academic performance rankings. But will we be able to hold onto our position
now that other countries have intensified their national higher education policies in order to compete
better internationally? In the final section I will explore two issues: first, will a Dutch university (or a
consortium of universities) be able to reach the very top in terms of the best academic institutions
worldwide? And secondly, what is the future for the Dutch higher education system from an interna-
tional perspective?
Will a Dutch university or a consortium of universities be able to reach the top 25 or so of the world’s best
academic research-intensive universities? To be able to answer this question I undertook a quick and
general analysis of some characteristics of a number of the world’s best universities. From the various
international rankings I took a sample of 25 universities from various parts of the world (US, Canada,
Japan, Australia, China, Europe) making sure that the highest scoring universities were included.
To this sample I added all Dutch universities with the exception of the Open University. For these 38
universities I compared their total enrolment and total annual revenues, and calculated annual revenue
levels per student, assuming that this is a good indicator for the academic investment capacity of a
university. I compared these with their scores on ‘scientific impact’ as measured by the mean normal-
ised citation score (MNCS), which is the average number of citations of the publications of a university,
normalised for field differences, publication year and document type. This scientific impact score is one
of the strong bibliometric indicators in the Leiden ranking. I have assumed that this indicator offers a
good picture of the relative academic strength of a university. Table 3 presents an overview of the sample
of universities, ranked according to the criterion of scientific impact.
Uni
vers
ity#
of s
tude
nts
Tota
l ann
ual r
even
ues
(mn)
Annu
al re
v-en
ues
pe
r stu
dent
(x
1000
)
Scie
ntifi
c im
pact
scor
eSc
ient
ific
exce
llenc
e Sc
ore
ARW
U 2
011 S
core
THE
2011
Sco
re
Mas
s. In
st. o
f Tec
hnol
ogy
(MIT
)10
600
2200
208
2,35
26%
37
Stan
ford
18
900
2100
111
2,06
23%
22
Har
vard
27
600
3850
139
2,04
24%
12
UC
Berk
ely
3600
015
0042
1,99
23%
410
Ecol
e Po
lyte
chni
que
Fed.
de La
usan
ne72
0059
082
1,84
20%
102-
150
46
Cam
brid
ge
1900
010
0053
1,76
19%
56
Oxf
ord
2100
012
0057
1,71
19%
104
Mic
higa
n-An
n Ar
bor
4200
024
0057
1,71
19%
2218
ETH
Zur
ich
1450
090
062
1,63
19%
2315
Edin
burg
h29
000
840
291,
5717
%53
36
Utr
echt
30
500
750
251,
5616
%48
68
Eras
mus
20
500
510
251,
5418
%15
1-20
015
7
Toro
nto
5500
015
0027
1,48
16%
2619
VU A
mst
erda
m25
000
430
171,
4617
%10
2-15
015
9
Leid
en
1950
050
026
1,45
16%
6579
Wag
enin
gen
7000
290
411,
4316
%15
1-20
075
Cope
nhag
en45
000
1050
231,
4316
%43
135
Amst
erda
m32
200
600
191,
4315
%10
2-15
092
Radb
oud
1850
049
026
1,43
14%
102-
150
159
Aarh
us
4300
080
019
1,41
15%
8612
5
Karo
linsk
a In
stitu
te16
000
600
381,
4115
%44
32
McG
ill
3800
088
023
1,4
15%
6428
Uni
Cat
holiq
ue d
e Lo
uvai
n22
000
370
171,
3915
%10
2-15
016
9
Tech
Uni
Mün
chen
2500
095
038
1,36
15%
4788
UNIVERSITY PROFILES | International rankings, institutional maps and the need to discuss the structure of Dutch higher education UNIVERSITY PROFILES | International rankings, institutional maps and the need to discuss the structure of Dutch higher education
24 25
The table clearly shows that there are large differences between universities in terms of both volume
(size of the student body) and income (annual revenues) and that the larger or richer universities do not
necessarily have the highest scientific impact scores. However, there is a relationship between annual
revenue level per student and impact score: the universities that have a high level of annual revenues
per student generally speaking score higher on scientific impact. Larger annual budgets for universities
(however they are created, whether through more public funding, higher tuition fees, mergers, or otherwise)
combined with modest student enrolment levels appear to relate to higher scientific impact scores.
Figure 6 presents this relationship.
SCIENTIFIC IMPACT AND ANNUAL REVENUES
Uni
vers
ity#
of s
tude
nts
Tota
l ann
ual
reve
nues
(mn
e )
Annu
al re
venu
es p
er
stud
ent (
e x
1000
)Sc
ient
ific
impa
ct sc
ore
Scie
ntifi
c ex
celle
nce
Scor
e
ARW
U 2
011
Scor
eTH
E 20
11 S
core
QS
2011
Sco
re
Gro
ning
en27
700
570
211,
3615
%10
2-15
013
411
5
Mel
bour
ne46
000
1200
261,
3614
%60
3731
Eind
hove
n U
ni o
f Tec
h75
0031
041
1,35
15%
301-
400
115
146
Twen
te94
0031
033
1,35
15%
301-
400
200
226
Maa
stric
ht
1500
033
022
1,33
15%
201-
300
197
109
Del
ft U
ni o
f Tec
h17
600
510
291,
2914
%15
1-20
010
410
4
Upp
sala
39
500
630
161,
2613
%67
8783
Nor
weg
ian
Uni
of S
&T
2000
055
028
1,25
13%
201-
300
-26
6
War
wic
k23
500
540
231,
2313
%15
1-20
015
750
Chin
ese
Uni
of H
K10
500
300
291,
1712
%15
1-20
015
137
Mün
ster
3600
049
014
1,17
12%
102-
150
-28
0
Chal
mer
s 10
500
300
291,
1612
%20
1-30
0-
202
Toky
o28
800
2050
711,
1311
%21
3025
Tilb
urg
1370
019
014
1,13
11%
401-
500
-40
1-45
0 Ta
ble
3: C
ompa
rison
of a
sele
cted
num
ber o
f hig
h pe
rfor
min
g un
iver
sitie
s wor
ldw
ide
(13 D
utch
and
25 n
on-D
utch
uni
vers
ities
)
Rem
arks
:
1. D
ata
are
deriv
ed fr
om U
-Map
, with
the
exce
ptio
n of
uni
vers
ities
from
the
Net
herla
nds,
the
US
and
the
Uni
vers
ity o
f Tok
yo
2. D
ata
of D
utch
uni
vers
ities
are
der
ived
from
«1 c
ijfer
HO
» (1c
HO
), 20
11
3. Sc
ient
ific i
mpa
ct is
mea
sure
d by
the
Mea
n N
orm
aliz
ed C
itatio
n Sc
ore;
sour
ce C
WTS
, Lei
den
Rank
ing
2011
/201
2/da
ta p
rovi
ded
by R
.Tijs
sen
4.
Rese
arch
exc
elle
nce
is m
easu
red
by th
e Pr
opor
tion
of To
p 10
% P
ublic
atio
ns; s
ourc
e CW
TS/l
eide
n Ra
nkin
g 20
11/2
012/
data
pro
vide
d by
R.Ti
jsse
n
5. Th
e re
venu
es o
f US
inst
itutio
ns a
re th
e ‘co
re re
venu
es 2
010’
as l
iste
d in
The
Inte
grat
ed P
osts
econ
dary
Edu
catio
n D
ata
Syst
em (I
PED
S), 2
012.
6.
Reve
nues
hav
e be
en co
nver
ted
to E
uro
at th
e 20
10 e
xcha
nge
rate
(app
rox.
EU
R 1 =
USD
1.32
)
7. Re
venu
es o
f Uni
vers
ity o
f Tok
yo re
fer t
o ye
ar 2
011 a
nd h
ave
been
conv
erte
d to
Eur
o at
the
2011
exc
hang
e ra
te (a
ppro
x. E
UR
1 = JP
Y 11
5)
Figure 6: Institutional scientific impact versus annual revenues per student: a comparison of 13 Dutch and 25 non-Dutch universities
Figure 6: Institutional scientific impact versus annual revenues per student: a comparison of 13 Dutch and 15 non-Dutch
universities
UNIVERSITY PROFILES | International rankings, institutional maps and the need to discuss the structure of Dutch higher education UNIVERSITY PROFILES | International rankings, institutional maps and the need to discuss the structure of Dutch higher education
26 27
universities and HBO institutions will become more clearly defined in years to come. However, what is
still lacking in our higher education system is any discussion about its overall structure. We appear to be
satisfied with our binary system and we appear unwilling to address the issues of differences between
institutions in terms of mission, performance, reputation and quality. In the Netherlands the notion
of system structure is still barely addressed. System level analyses seem to be taboo in Dutch higher
education and are quickly associated with unnecessary ‘grand visions’ and too much government regu-
lation. But our country cannot avoid reassessing the effectiveness and efficiency of its higher education
system as a whole. While other countries move forward in their strategies with respect to their higher
education and research systems, the Netherlands cannot simply wait and see and assume that we will
automatically end up among the top five of the world’s knowledge economies.
As I have indicated, several countries have embarked upon policies to create further differentiation
in their higher education systems in order to create the best possible output in terms of knowledge
and human capital. In several countries steps are taken to create one or a limited number of research-
focused universities of high international standing, while at the same time stimulating other institu-
tions to provide quality education for regional and national development purposes. In these countries
current higher education policies are first of all policies about system structures and about the diversity of
missions and roles of the various institutions that collectively make up these higher education systems.
If we want to keep up with international competition we too need to have a fresh, objective look at
the Dutch system of higher education and research as a whole. Do we have the best set of institutional
profiles in the context of the global competition for talent and knowledge? Do we have the best range
of profiles in order to further develop our knowledge economy? Do we have the best possible spread
and critical mass of research units and infrastructures? Do we want to create one or two universities of
high international standing while stimulating the remaining universities to develop other profiles? Are
we spending our resources as well as we can? Do we provide sufficiently diverse teaching programs to
train a growing diversity of learners? Do we attract the appropriate level and volume of international
talent? Are our knowledge application processes sufficiently effective and efficient?
These and similar questions need to be addressed not only at the level of higher education institutions,
but in terms of the overall higher education and research system as well. Now that in the Netherlands
we have taken the step of designing and discussing institutional profiles, we should be bold enough
to take the next step as well: to analyse our system as a whole. We still have an internationally lauded
higher education system. Let us try to keep it up to at least the current levels of performance and
effectiveness.
This allows us to explore the potential of specific universities to climb the ladder of scientific impact
and academic strength. Let us look at some examples.
In the UK in 2004 the Victoria University of Manchester and the Manchester University of Science
and Technology merged to become the University of Manchester with a stated ambition to be among
the top 25 world-class universities by 2015. In order to reach this goal an extra £80 million was invested
in the new university. The University of Manchester now finds itself in 38th position in the Shanghai
ranking (2011), up from 53rd in 2005. Two more examples are taken from the Danish university system
where recent mergers led to some larger universities as well. I calculated the annual revenue levels per
student for both the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University in 2006 (before the mergers) and
in 2011. Copenhagen went from a score of 16.6 to a score of 23 on annual revenue level per student, and
from a Shanghai ranking position of 56th in 2006 to 43rd in 2011. Aarhus went from an annual revenue
level per student of 16.7 to 19, and moved in the Shanghai ranking from a position somewhere between
102 and 150 to 86th. Both cases appear to show that a clever merger strategy may create an academically
stronger institution. In Denmark the crucial element in the merger strategy appears to have been the
fact that independent research institutes also got involved in the mergers and helped to create larger
research volumes in the new universities without necessarily increasing student enrolment numbers.
The analysis and the examples show that higher scientific impact scores and higher ranking positions
appear to be produced not so much by creating larger student bodies only. Building a top-level academic
university seems to be done by creating large budgets in combination with limited numbers of students.
The Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne is a clear example of a relatively small university in terms of student
numbers but with a relatively large budget. And it is a university with a very high scientific impact score.
In our country there is some discussion about a closer and deeper collaboration between the two
universities in Amsterdam as well as between the universities of Leiden, Delft and Rotterdam (Erasmus
University). According to the analysis presented here it should not be expected that collaborations like
these will automatically produce institutions capable of dramatically increasing their scientific impact
scores. Both initiatives will lead to very large institutions with still relatively modest budgets. Their
annual revenue per student levels will barely increase and therefore we cannot expect that they will
easily rise to join the top 25 universities worldwide. The only way for a Dutch university to break the US
and UK hegemony of academic reputation and to reach the top levels in the rankings is to increase its
investment level, particularly in research, while at the same time limiting student enrolment numbers.
From this point of view, as the Danish experience shows, mergers between universities and autonomous
non-university research institutions (like the Dutch NWO and KNAW institutions) may be far more
effective than mergers between universities.
This brings us at the final question: what is the future of our higher education system in the inter-
national context? The Dutch higher education system is a binary system with research universities on
one side of the divide and mainly teaching universities on the other. Institutional profiling has begun
recently on both sides of the divide and we can expect that the various institutional profiles of our
UNIVERSITY PROFILES | International rankings, institutional maps and the need to discuss the structure of Dutch higher education UNIVERSITY PROFILES | International rankings, institutional maps and the need to discuss the structure of Dutch higher education
28 29
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