Information Knowledge Systems Management

The globalization of university-based engineering education and research is associated with the creation of national and international “brands” by leading research universities. Such branding is reflected in rankings of universities and their programs. High brand visibility appears to lead to high rankings and vice versa. This paper explores this phenomenon for university-based engineering programs. Attributes associated with ranking systems are discussed and universities’ abilities to influence these attributes are considered. Both moving up in the rankings and sustaining highly ranked positions are discussed. These issues are addressed both in general and for the specific case of Georgia Tech. Three fundamental conclusions are reached: research and education continue to be the key to universities achieving world class status and economic development for key stakeholders; size provides universities with the resources and abilities to pursue strategies that lead to increasing recognition; and vision and leadership both attract resources and enable the focus needed to achieve the highest levels of recognition.

Engineering schools frequently face intense competition for resources. The latter would include funding, student enrolments, reputable faculty, and space. Such resource constraints are further complicated by the increasing “shrinkage” of the world in terms of the ease with which information is spread and the mobility of the human resources (by way of the faculty and students) a school is keen to attract. To ensure continued and adequate flow of resources into a school so that it may prosper and pursue its aspirations, a school would need to periodically examine its present configuration and determine its need to evolve.

Appropriate evolution requires a school to define and understand its mission, articulate its ambition, and project its vision. What needs to be done and how this can be done depends very much on a school's present configuration and the ecosystem it finds itself in. A school therefore needs to lay out its strategies and determine the tactics necessary to support these so as to achieve its objectives. This paper discusses some of the issues which may affect the formulation of such strategies, what some of these strategies might be, and the difficulties one might face while attempting to implement these.

In this paper, a conceptual model of the factors affecting competence building in an Engineering university is developed. The extent to which each faculty member can exert his/her potential to the fullest has a profound impact on the overall competences in an Engineering university. Identifying the bottlenecks in the system, which are the inhibiting factors, would lead to concrete solutions to strengthen competences. Having put forward a conceptual model, a detailed case study of competence building analysis in an Engineering School in Japan, Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) is presented. The study was carried out as a 2 step process. At first, ranking surveys by the media were reviewed to assess how Tokyo Tech was assessed by external agents. Secondly, a comprehensive survey based on a questionnaire was carried out within the Engineering School in the main areas affecting competences, namely admissions process, teaching, research, internationalization, contribution to society and organizational, administrative processes. In this paper, I have focused on the analyses of teaching and research competences. The data obtained was used as a basis to provide concrete policy recommendations to top administrators of the university to strengthen competences. Among the national universities in Japan, this study marks the first time that such a path breaking in-depth survey has been carried out in an Engineering School. This approach may be readily adapted to be used as a strategic management analysis tool in other types of research institutions such as national research laboratories or corporate basic research laboratories.

Recruiting competent faculty members and encouraging their good practices are unquestionably important for university management. Although faculty assessment is a basic tool for such managerial tasks, Japanese universities had long underestimated faculty assessment. In the 1990s, university standards changed in Japan so that internal evaluation and publication of its results became mandatory. Since then, a series of university reform activities have boosted universities’ awareness of public accountability and caused universities to place much value on showing easy-to-understand results of their assessments. Accordingly, objective university assessment has been touted, and research assessment by bibliometric indicators has been a focus of constant attention. This paper describes the faculty assessment scheme typically used in Japanese universities and points out its problems. It then focuses on the use of bibliometric indicators in this assessment, discusses problems with their use, and concludes by suggesting ways in which bibliometric indicators could be used effectively.

This paper attempts to identify the main success factors in education in engineering and natural sciences. We identify and discuss the importance of the selection of faculty, staff, and students, the role of the way resources are allocated, the quality and quantity of infrastructures available and the institution's capability of self-reorganization. General observations are illustrated by examples taken from the university the author is affiliated with.

Since the body of knowledge in science and technology is growing more and more, a natural consequence for students would be the need to study for a longer period of time. However, institutions of higher education are now being urged to shorten the average length of studies because of rising costs and the demands of the business world for younger employees. The established reaction to this dilemma is to emphasize specialized subjects, thereby leaving distressing gaps in the breadth of students’ education. Novel ideas for improved efficiency of teaching and learning are thus needed to guarantee the competitiveness of future engineers. A potential solution might be to reorganize programs of study into a “team” approach: Instead of treating different subjects like mathematics and physics in separate, yet parallel, lectures, they could be presented in a more efficient and motivating manner via a unified lecture consisting of a network of subject micro-modules.