Do top universities get top researchers as leaders?
Latest press releasesResearch from Warwick Business School suggests that good researchers, not merely good managers, ought to be appointed as vice chancellors.
WBS researcher Amanda Goodall looks at which university leaders are referenced most in journal articles. She uses citations which are references to authors in other academic papers as acknowledgement of their contribution to science. In her study the lifetime citations are counted by hand of the leaders of the world's top 100 universities identified in a global university ranking.
This study documents a positive correlation between the lifetime citations - or research history -- of a university's president and the position of that university in the global ranking. On closer examination, this correlation is stronger in the sample of major US universities than in top universities outside the United States. Better universities are run by better researchers. That the top universities in the world -- who have the widest choice of candidates -- systematically appoint top researchers as their vice chancellors and presidents seems important to understand.
Despite the importance of research to research universities -- as described in many mission-statements -- no studies currently exist that ask whether it matters if the head of a research university is himself or herself a committed researcher. Given the significance of universities in the world, and the difficulty that many have in appointing leaders, this question seems pertinent.
WBS researcher Amanda Goodall looks at which university leaders are referenced most in journal articles. She uses citations which are references to authors in other academic papers as acknowledgement of their contribution to science. In her study the lifetime citations are counted by hand of the leaders of the world's top 100 universities identified in a global university ranking.
This study documents a positive correlation between the lifetime citations - or research history -- of a university's president and the position of that university in the global ranking. On closer examination, this correlation is stronger in the sample of major US universities than in top universities outside the United States. Better universities are run by better researchers. That the top universities in the world -- who have the widest choice of candidates -- systematically appoint top researchers as their vice chancellors and presidents seems important to understand.
Despite the importance of research to research universities -- as described in many mission-statements -- no studies currently exist that ask whether it matters if the head of a research university is himself or herself a committed researcher. Given the significance of universities in the world, and the difficulty that many have in appointing leaders, this question seems pertinent.
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