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Traditional studies in the sociology of science have highlighted the self-organized character of the academic community. This article focuses on recent interrelated changes that alter that distinctive governance structure and its related patterns of competition and cooperation. The changes that we identify here are contractualization and large-scale cooperative research. We use different data sources to exemplify these new patterns and discuss the illustrative role of research clusters in German academia. Research clusters as funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) are both a highly prestigious scarce good in the competition for reputation and resources and a means of fostering cooperation. Our analysis of this German example reveals that this new institutional configuration of universities as organizations, academic researchers, and the state has a profound effect on organizational practices. We discuss the implications of our empirical findings with regard to collegiality in academia. Ultimately, we anticipate a further weakening of collegial bonds, not only because universities and the state have become more active in shaping the nature of academic competition and cooperation but also because of the increasing strategic and individualistic orientation of academic researchers. In the final section, we summarize our findings and address the need for further research and an international comparative perspective.

The paper’s aim is to explore female academics’ publication aspirations and constraints in a less researched area of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

The research data presented in this paper is part of a larger cross-European project involving semi-structured interviews conducted with Early Career Researchers (ECR) (PhD+ 8 years) from Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) from seventeen European countries.

The findings show how ECR women from the CEE region in SSH encounter difficulties when trying to publish, which obstacles add to a strong economic and geopolitical dependence. Findings reveal that female ECRs use various publications strategies to enhance their scientific career and engage in the neoliberal model of academia, but mostly stay in their local scientific communities, without building internationally recognized scientific careers. Thus, they do wish for a global recognition, but they opt for a safer and more accessible choice of publishing in their local scientific communities.

Knowledge which academic women from the CEE region produce (mostly in their local languages) stays in their local and isolated enviroments, creating an imbalanced knowledge advancement in a international academic arena which recognizes only publications written in English and in renowed journals.

This article reports on a study that explored how the Tanzanian government can support the development of research-intensive universities in its higher education system.

Data were collected through document analysis and in-depth semi-structured interviews with participants obtained from national higher education departments, senior university leadership offices and academic staff in both public and private universities.

The study identified four essential systemic elements for developing research-intensive universities (RIUs): diversification of universities based on their core functions, allocation of financial resources according to research performance, relaxation of university governing systems and accrediting universities based on research outcomes.

The study identified essential systemic elements that could address the issue of developing RIUs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). These elements present a potential solution for developing a diverse higher education system capable of sustaining RIUs, offering opportunities to produce innovative knowledge, develop diverse skills and meet the needs of a range of students, employers and businesses.

This study adds to the body of knowledge on how LMICs can develop well-functioning RIUs. The study also contributes to the ongoing debates among higher education stakeholders, including governments, academics, students and the community, on the changing dynamics of higher education and its role in national and regional development.

The internationalization of higher education institutions (HEIs) is the top stage of international relations among universities, and it is no longer regarded as a goal but as a means to improve the education of sustainability. As institutional commitments to internationalize higher education continue to grow, so does the need to critically consider the intended purposes and actual outcomes of the resulting programs and policies. This study aims to explore how institutional international policies influence outcomes of HEIs internationalization in the East Asian region, specifically in Taiwan and Japan.

The study used quantitative design. 3,158 participants, including 1,192 participants from Taiwan and 1,966 participants from Japan, were randomly recruited to complete the Academic Profession in the Knowledge Society (APIKS), an international survey examining the change in academic work in HEIs. The study adopted quantitative data and used two variables (institutional international policies and outcomes of internationalization) with descriptive, correlational, and moderated multiple hierarchical regression analysis with SPSS computer software to answer the research questions.

The study showed that both Taiwanese and Japanese academics have high agreements on the outcomes of internationalization for enhancing academic quality and increasing mobility of students. In both countries, two institutional international policies of HEIs internalization-- clear internationalization strategies and funding for faculty members to undertake research abroad-- can significantly influence the process of internationalization in the teaching-oriented and research-oriented HEIs respectively.

This study provides insight into the relationship between institutional international policies and the outcomes of HEIs internationalization in Taiwan and Japan. It provides university leaders with empirical evidence for implementing managerial strategies of internationalization that promote education for sustainability in HEIs.

Within the last two decades, entrepreneurship education has become institutionalized in Germany. It is offered as a stand-alone program or as part of a business degree, combining academic knowledge, practical skills, and personal development to enhance the entrepreneurial success of university graduates. While entrepreneurship education has experienced similar growth worldwide, its emergence in Germany is closely tied to the country’s political and economic developments. The significance of entrepreneurship education for a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem and contemporary economic policy has been instrumental in advancing its academic recognition. This chapter provides a historical analysis of the academization of entrepreneurship in Germany. It explores the recursive and often idiosyncratic processes involving state and financial institutions, companies, and universities that have created, respecified, and mutually reinforced a subdiscipline and field of study. Academic entrepreneurship knowledge successively not only became relevant for starting a business but also for employment within the entrepreneurial infrastructure and beyond. This chapter follows a chronological order, highlighting three key stages in the academization of entrepreneurship education. First, the academic, financial, and political roots (I) of entrepreneurship up until the 1970s. Second, it explores the transformation (II) of entrepreneurship into a viable policy alternative and the challenges faced in establishing complementary research and education in higher education institutions during the 1980s. Finally, it sketches the institutionalization (III) of entrepreneurship as a central driver of government economic policy, allowing for the late bloom of entrepreneurship education and research at universities around the turn of the millennium.

The purpose of this paper is to understand US federal government policy during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and the connections to graduate education. Using the multiple streams framework, the paper outlines these actions through various streams (problems, policy and political) and perspectives (defining problems, articulating options and mobilizing responses).

The primary sources of data collected for this study were US federal government policies from March 2020 through May 2021. Policies were examined through introduction, implementation and alteration (when possible) within the specific time period of the study. The policies outlined in this paper were connected to the US Department of Education, and to a lesser extent, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies. Data analysis was a two-fold process. First, the individual policy was considered as a single case and second, a cross-case comparison occurred across the multiple cases.

Analysing the study’s data in the problem stream provides a strong indicator of how the pandemic was perceived as a challenge for US graduate education. The pandemic served as a focusing event and illuminated the connections of graduate education to key institutional functions, including research and teaching. Broadly, US federal policy actions in this area focused on giving institutions resources and flexibility to support graduate students and allow them to continue their academic work while also seeding funding and incentives to continue the movement of knowledge, activities and people in the research pipeline. Actions in the policy stream aligned with the decentralized nature of the US higher education system and allowed for choice by academic institutions within the parameters of options.

This paper extends extant literature related to policy-making and graduate education to consider policy-making during a time of crisis. The paper offers methodological and conceptual ideas for consideration in future research.

The key purpose of this study is to systematically examine the landscape of education research funded by the National Plan of Educational Research Funding (NPERF) in China. The study aims to: (1) identify the thematic focus areas that reflect the national education agenda, (2) analyze the general funding patterns of education research projects and (3) gain insights into the distinctive nature of the research agenda in China. The study employs a rigorous data-driven approach to offer valuable insights into the dynamic discourses within the field of education research in China, which has received relatively little attention despite its potential significance.

In this study, we utilized word co-occurrence analysis and corpus-based frequency analysis to analyze the research projects funded by the National Plan of Educational Research Funding (NPERF) from 2011 to 2020.

The key characteristics of these projects highlight the focus on higher education research, addressing the interests of specific cohorts of students, teachers and disadvantaged populations. Furthermore, these projects demonstrate a remarkable responsiveness to the policy needs of the country and a robust inclination toward an international comparative framework.

The findings offer valuable insights into the landscape and features of funded education research in China, revealing a strong emphasis on addressing practical needs and enhancing the capacity of the education system in the country.

This paper presents a systematic examination of the topics covered in funded research under the National Plan of Educational Research Funding (NPERF) scheme from 2011 to 2020. It contributes to the advancement of understanding regarding knowledge traditions and practices in the Chinese context. Methodologically, this paper is the first in the literature to be prototyped with a word co-occurrence analysis approach to systematically investigate the funded education research in China. Additionally, it includes the development of a comprehensive corpus list to uncover the key characteristics of the funded projects. The analysis provides unique insights into the priorities and directions of education research supported by the Chinese government, which are of potential interest to international readers.

International collaboration in higher education and research is considered crucial for economic growth and development. The policy pursued for international research collaboration depends on conditions in other geographical regions and countries, such as trade interests, conflicts, security, and pandemics, hence the term geopolitics. These conditions can be expected to have a major impact on how relationships and cooperation patterns develop. The handling of these issues is discussed in this chapter in the framework of the European policy context as well as through empirical examples regarding the dependence of international recruitment of researchers in two Scandinavian countries, Denmark and Norway. The chapter points to the possible barriers current geopolitical challenges may have for the realization of European as well as national policies for internationalization in higher education. Inequalities depending on gender, career stage, country of birth and other factors have intensified during the pandemic and academic autonomy and freedom of individual researchers and scientific communities are at stake due to a geopolitical situation, which entails increased control with knowledge transfer and research collaboration across national borders. These developments require more complex, targeted safeguarding and policies to protect collaboration in higher education and research.

This chapter examines the internationalisation of public higher education in Brazil using the theoretical triptych of internationalisation as developed by leading scholars in the field: internationalisation at home (IaH), internationalisation abroad (IA), and internationalisation at a distance (IaD). This framework – while rooted in knowledge, systems, and scholarship from researchers and institutions in the Global North – is a constructive tool for categorising and understanding internationalisation at Brazil’s higher education institutions (HEIs) when coupled with an exploration of the history, context, policy, and dynamics of internationalisation efforts. The chapter then summarises and underscores recent and important scholarship by Brazilian researchers and others in the Global South that describes the history of the nation’s internationalisation efforts. It also critiques the powerful influence that Global North-centred objectives and priorities for internationalisation have on the process at Brazilian HEIs. Following a discussion of the theoretical framework and relevant literature, the chapter provides a case study of internationalisation efforts and initiatives of an elite public university, the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). Content analysis of UFMG’s website and publicly available reports and data demonstrates a high level of institutional internationalisation that has unfolded in recent years, stimulated by federal funding and guided by a strategic framework developed within the Ministry of Education. An analysis of UFMG’s mission, partnerships and programmes finds that the institution serves as an example of internationalisation in Brazil’s public higher education context, as its programmes and initiatives exemplify the overarching objectives of internationalisation in Brazilian higher education.