The positive contribution of tertiary education is increasingly recognized as not limited to middle-income and advanced countries, since it applies equally to low-income economies. Tertiary education can help countries become more globally competitive by developing a skilled, productive, and flexible labor force and by creating, applying, and spreading new ideas and technologies. Research universities are reckoned among the central institutions of the 21st century knowledge economies. This book extends the analysis of the framework presented in The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities (Salmi 2009) and by examining the recent experience of 11 universities in nine countries that have grappled with the challenges of building successful research institutions in difficult circumstances and learning from the lessons of these experiences.

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