Everyone wants a world class university. No country feels it can do without one. The problem is that no one knows what a world class university is, and no one has figured out how to get one. Everyone, however, refers to the concept. A Google search, for example, produces thousands of references, and many institutions from modest academic universities in central Canada to a new college in the Persian Gulf all call themselves "world class". We are in an age of academic hype in which universities of different kinds in diverse countries claim this exalted status often with little justification.

The dictionary defines world class as "ranking among the foremost in the world; of an international standard of excellence". Fair enough, but in higher education, who decides? The following characteristics have by no means been agreed upon by teams of experts they are meant simply as benchmarks to provide the basis for debate and analysis. Excellence in research underpins the idea of world class research that is recognized by peers and that pushes forward the frontiers of knowledge. Such research can be measured and communicated. But if research is the central element, other aspects of a university are required to make outstanding research possible. Top quality professors are, of course, central. And to attract and retain the best academic staff, favorable working conditions must be available. These include arrangements for job security many countries call it tenure and appropriate salaries and benefits, although academics do not necessarily expect top salaries. The best professors see their work as a "calling" something to which they are committed by intellectual interest not just a job.

Academic freedom and an atmosphere of intellectual excitement arc also central to a world class university. Professors and students must be free to pursue knowledge wherever it leads and to publish their work freely without fear of sanction by academic or external authorities. Some countries permit unfettered academic freedom in the nonpolitical hard sciences but place restrictions on it in the more sensitive social sciences and humanities. In most countries, academic freedom extends to expression of opinions by members of the academic community on social and political issues as well as within the narrow confines of professional expertise.

The governance of the institution is also important. World class universities have a significant measure of internal self governance and an entrenched tradition, often buttressed by statutes, ensuring that the academic community (usually including professors, but sometimes also students) has control over the central elements of academic life the admission of students, the curriculum, the criteria for the award of degrees, the selection of new members of the professoriate, and the basic direction of the academic work of the institution.

Adequate facilities for academic work are essential the most advanced and creative research and the most innovative teaching rely on access to appropriate libraries and laboratories, as well as to the Internet and other electronic resources. The increasing complexity and expansion of science and scholarship make the cost of providing full access high. Although the Internet has given rise to some cost savings and has eased access to many kinds of knowledge, it is by no means a panacea. The facilities needed go beyond labs and libraries staff and professors must have adequate offices as well. In addition, adequate funding must be available to support the university's research and teaching as well as their other functions, and the support must be consistent and on a losing term. The cost of maintaining a research university continues to grow because of the increasing complexity and expense of scientific research. Universities cannot benefit from many of the productivity increases other enterprises have achieved through automation teaching and learning still generally require professors and students to be in direct contact.

Funding is a special challenge now because governments in many countries are disinvesting in higher education. Academic institutions are everywhere asked to pay for an increasing part of their budgets through tuition and student fees, funds raised by consulting and selling research based products, and other revenue generating activities. The fact is, however, that public support is necessary for research universities everywhere. Only in the United States, and to a lesser extent in Japan, do private research universities of the highest rank exist. And in the United States, such universities benefit from government subsidies in the form of research grants and loans and grants to students. The top private institutions have significant endowments as well. Excerpted from Philip G. Altbach's "The Costs and Benefits of World Class Universities"