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This book adopts a qualitative case study approach to provide the readers with a systematic delineation and interpretation of the implications of the university ranking phenomenon for Taiwan's higher education system. It reviews the literature on different theories concerning the global transformation of higher education and presents basic information on higher education in Taiwan. The author develops a four-dimensional framework for the analysis of the ranking phenomenon in the island-state. First, the technological/ecological dimension aims to look into how the rankings have impacted Taiwan's higher education based on empirical findings from five Taiwanese public universities. Next, the technological/geographical dimension examines how Taiwan can use rankings to promote its interests in global higher education. The two conceptual dimensions focus on the relationship between the rankings and power in higher education. They show how the phenomenon can be read and explained through theoretical lenses from ecological and geographical perspectives. From an ecological perspective, the empirical evidence suggests that the influence of rankings varies throughout the academic hierarchy in Taiwan. The theoretical analysis then illustrates the relationship between the ranking phenomenon and the power structure in academic hierarchy. Geographically, while the empirical analysis is based on data from Taiwan, the theoretical analysis offers essential insights that help readers to understand the changing global landscape of higher education and its implications in East Asia

A new policy initiative called the Higher Education Sprout Project was launched in Taiwan in 2018. This project highlights social responsibility as a new key performance indicator that the government uses to monitor the performance of universities. This initiative reveals a reorientation of higher education policy that represents a shift from an outward-looking strategy to a relatively inward-looking approach, and exemplifies the relevance of local politics to higher education policy making.

This article examines how the Singaporean state has reformed the higher education sector in order to co-opt different political and economic agendas at both the global and local levels, utilising quality assurance as a regulatory process of control. The core argument is that quality assurance has been used as an instrument to reshape the higher education landscape in Singapore. The article begins with a review of the literature on the role of the Singaporean state in higher education. Next, it reviews how the Global Schoolhouse initiative was developed and implemented and how public and private higher education sectors were audited. The article then analyses the establishment of a new quality assurance mechanism for private higher education in 2009. Finally, the article suggests that this new regulatory regime exemplifies the importance of political factors in the implementation of neoliberal managerialism in higher education.