Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: -- Introduction -- I: THE ROAD TO ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE -- 1. Addressing Evolving Societal Expectations -- 2. When Numbers Define Academic Quality -- II: MAKING SENSE OF DIVERSITIES -- 3. Quality Regimes And Organisational Instrumentation -- 4. Evaluating Faculty Contributions -- 5. Social Values, Norms, Cultures -- 6. Integration And Differentiation Processes -- III: THE ILLUSION OF A ONE BEST WAY -- 7. The Top Of The Pile Regime As Quality Reference -- 8. Is The Reference Model Replicable? -- Conclusion Toward Post-Excellence Quality?.

"Are higher education and research in the process of becoming more and more alike? Global standards such as performance rankings and New Public Management approaches provide an identical rationale for launching major reforms. The way to produce an academic quality at the local level is expected to be aligned according to such standards.In Search of Academic Quality questions the relevance of such an evolution scenario. Based on an international comparison observing in-depth a series of universities, the book suggests that diversity remains massive when considering how single institutions position themselves in terms of quality standards and combine resources, as well as the alternatives they have access to given their organizational and cultural governance path dependence. This volume explores a series of analytical tools applicable for management purposes such as improving academic quality upgrading. "--