Universities That Bring About Change In A Changing World: A Model Suggestion

Universities That Bring About Change In A Changing World: A Model Suggestion

ALABAY, M. Nurettin
KAHRAMAN, Yavuz

A closer examination of history reveals that humanity has been undergoing a constant development, particularly after the discovery of writing, numerals and zero. Alvin Toffler in his book ―The Third Wave‖, describes three great revolutions that occurred since the creation of the world: the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, and the information revolution. Education/training, particularly higher education, has come to be regarded as the most important factor that changes, improves, and shapes the society. It is also known that with this fact in mind, governments may tend to establish universities in the regions which they want to change and improve. Why would students and parents still choose the universities that are far away from their hometowns or located in other regions? It may be suggested that qualities of universities play an important role in their decisions. But are people motivated solely based on the qualities of universities? Are there other factors involved? Also, can the high preferableness of a university be considered as the only criterion for its success? Which factors are more effective in students‘ university preferences?Do such factors as qualification of university lecturers, the number of students per lecturer, the employment opportunities after graduation, and prestige play a role in students‘ choosing a particular university? If yes, to what extent? What should be the measurement metrics for a university? Are ―quality of education,‖ ―internationalization,‖ ―research,‖ and ―prestige‖ sufficient metrics in this regard? Why does a specific country attract more international students than others? Why do other countries send students to that specific country? What are the numbers of universities of countries? What are the capacities of these universities and are these capacities adequate?In order to measure the performances of university lecturers, is it adequate to assign some scores to their academic works, particularly asking lecturers to publish works in a foreign language as well as encouraging them having works published in a way to get more citations. This study evaluates the strategic positions of the universities around the world and discusses their projections. It examines such issues as the qualities of a good university, criteria of performance measurement, qualities required for attracting international students.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2010-06

192