Third Mission Ranking for World Class Universities: Beyond Teaching and Research

Abstract

‘World class universities’ (WCU) are an issue of intense debate among the academic community. To define a WCU supposes that only those universities that fit the ‘quality’ criteria established under benchmarking conditions can be considered as such. The good news is that several dimensions could be used to defined excellence, not only classical academic and research criteria. This paper intends to address conceptual aspects of WCU with regard to relations between university ‘mission’ development and why, how and when an institution is considered a WCU from non‐classical criteria. The main purpose of this paper is to propose new dimensions to rank University Missions. Going beyond teaching and research, the University Third Mission – services to Society – has at least 3 dimensions: a non profit – social – approach; an entrepreneur focus; and an innovative approximation. This paper will consider the various implications that a third mission measurement and benchmark could introduce in the controversial ranking business.