The pursuit to construct “world-class” universities is an ongoing global obsession across the world, which lays emphasis on the development of competitive higher education and research systems as core national economic approach.

The portrayal “world-class” is more contextual rather than absolute, the expression “world-class university” has an irrefutable cachet. There is no solo, clear-cut definition of what organises a world-class university (WCU), but there are few common attributes that majority of the experts point towards. The three attributes stated by Philip Altbach and Jamil Salmi that focus on a high concentration of talent, abundant resources and favourable governance have been widely discussed in writings and practice.  Both in developing and developed countries, policymakers and higher education leaders are attempting to identify and outline their desires and plans aimed at achieving global ranking for their university/universities.

Despite condemnation of the methodology, the choice of indicators and weightings, and the reliability and quality of data used for comparing performance, the obsession for constructing world-class universities has increased over the period of time. But how much do we really discern or comprehend regarding the ranking systems? What do the rankings really measure? Do rankings measure the quality and help in attaining the broad assignment of higher education? Does the competition as outcome of ranking raise standards?  Is the ranking system an apposite instrument to frame higher education policies?

This edited volume tries to look at the concept of world-class universities in milieu of different countries of the world and explore their experiences either in existing WCUs or constructing WCU or attempting to create WCU. The country-based chapters show differentiated paths of achievements and their approach towards the concept of WCU.

Marcelo Rabossi, Professor, Torcuato Di Tella University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

K.M. Joshi, Professor of Economics of Higher Education, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar, India

Saeed Paivandi, Professor, University of Lorraine, and Director of the Research Centre – LISEC (Inter-regional Laboratory of Science of Education and Communication) Lorraine, Nancy, France.