ACADEMIC CONTENT AND INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP IN A GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE UNIVERSITY: AN EAST ASIAN PARADIGM

The proposed 2009 ICERI presentation details an empirical study at the National Cheng-Chi University (NCCU) in Taipei Taiwan during the 2007 – 2008 academic year. The aim of the research was to capture the views and practices that individual academics adopted in response to the NCCU striving for recognition as a globally competitive institution. This examination was based on the premise that globalization forms a lingering and intricate history within institutions of higher education. From the beginning universities have acted upon tensions between national boundaries and international trends. Yet in the age of contemporary globalization universities that strive to become globally competitive share a number of multifaceted issues and dilemmas that are interwoven through the administration and labor of academics (Mok & Lee, 2001).
To begin, the theoretical framework of the study is defined. Highlights of this discussion include the importance of theories, methods, skills, and technologies for defining globalization and internationalization. Next, a description of the research setting is provided which leads into an outline of the methodological framework of the study followed by analysis of findings. Discussion of the results situates local standpoints within both the dominant paradigms of globalization and an East Asian exemplar. A concluding discussion considers implications as a point of reference for contemporary visions of higher education within the age of globalization.
The research was designed as a problem-centered interpretive case study and was conducted on the NCCU campus in Taipei Taiwan. Primary data sources included upkeep of a field log, transcriptions of one-to-one interviews with all participants, bi-weekly focus group sessions with some NCCU participants, and ongoing review of university media documents along with weekly summaries of local and national current events. Data were gathered from 30 NCCU professors who held positions from assistant to full rank as well as deans, heads of departments, and center directors. They ranged in age from 36 to 65 years and were spread across faculties of the social and natural sciences as well as the humanities.
Key implications suggest that patterns of convergence encasing the internationalism and globalization of the NCCU are aligned with trends redefining academic content and paradigms of scholarship, as well as the increasing emphasis on English as the language of formal instruction and academic writing. Implications suggest that the patterns of convergence begin with global trends, yet critical interpretation is based on local analysis regarding how the respective effects are actualized, mediated, or contested within the academic lives of faculty. In this study interpretation suggests that despite engaging in global intellectual work anchored by internationally recognized paradigmatic frameworks and the universalism of scholarly protocols of inquiry, participants were aligned within the situated context of the NCCU academic community. In closing the debate surrounding globally competitive universities is compelling and contradictory. All in all the NCCU conforms to the aspirations of universities around the globe--to be recognized as a world-class globally competitive institution.