Maria Yudkevich is Research Fellow in the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College. Previously she was Professor and Head of the Center for Institutional Studies at HSE University, Moscow. She is a coauthor of Higher Education in Russia.

Philip G. Altbach is Research Professor and Distinguished Fellow of the Center for International Higher Education, Boston College. He is the author of Global Perspectives on Higher Education and other books.

Jamil Salmi is a global tertiary education expert; former Higher Education Coordinator, World Bank; Emeritus Professor of Higher Education Policy, Diego Portales University, Chile; and Research Fellow, Center for International Higher Education, Boston College.

Acknowledgments vii
Introduction ix
1 The Context of Academic Excellence Initiatives 1
Philip G. Altbach, Jamil Salmi, and Maria Yudkevich
2 Academic Excellence Initiatives: The Case of China 11
Rui Yang
3 Academic Excellence Initiatives in Japan: Can a Series of Government Interventions Make a Difference? 33
Akiyoshi Yonezawa
4 Malaysia's Quest for Excellence in Higher Education 57
Chang Da Wan and Tien Hong Lim
5 Academic Excellence Initiatives in the Republic of Korea: Brain Korea 21 81
Byung Shik Rhee and Meishan Yin
6 Did Taiwan Academic Excellence Initiatives Build World-Class Universities? Governance, Funding Schemes, and Policy Shifts 107
Angela Yung Chi Hou
7 Academic Excellence Initiatives: The Danish Case 129
Lise Degn
8 Academic Excellence a la Francaise: Between Excellence and Equality 151
Andree Sursock
9 The Long and Winding Road to Excellence: The German Case 177
Torger Moller and Stefan Hornbostel
10 A Project for the Elite That Changed the System as a Whole: A Case Study of Project 5-100 203
Andrey Volkov, Yaroslav Kuzminov, and Maria Yudkevich
11 The Transformative Impact of Academic Excellence Initiatives: What Have We Learned? 227
Jamil Salmi, Philip G. Altbach, and Maria Yudkevich
Contributors 251
Index 257