“世界级”大学是比较出来的吗？

“World Class” or The Curse of Comparison？

那些自称”世界级”的大学都能名副其实吗？果真如此，这可能成为一种理想的公共政策吗？实际上，”世界级”这个具有双重性的术语本身就包含多种含义，这个本应按国际标准定义的”世界级”（world）概念却被本土化概念限定了。本文旨在探讨不同类型院校的质量，尤其是通过比较的方式探讨质量形成和测量的过程。本文还将讨论质量与声誉之间貌似神离的差异性，并得出建设性结论：科研成果质量和创造能力方面的”世界级”比较是可以进行的，但宽泛地将”世界级”标准应用到整个大学质量比较之中的做法则是不可取的。因为，从最好处说，这将徒劳无益，从最坏处讲，则可能造成误导。

Can all the universities that claim to be “world class” actually live up to the claim？If they could be， would that be desirable public policy？It could be that there are so many different meanings of “world class” that the term in practical effect is an oxymoron：the definition of “world” is determined locally when conceptually it should be defined internationally. This paper discusses different kinds of institutional quality， how quality is formed and how it can measure， particularly by comparison. It also discusses the subtle but fundamental differences between quality and reputation. This paper concludes with the suggestion that world class comparison of research quality and productivity are possible， but that any broader application to the “world class” quality of universities will be at best futile and at worst misleading.