Government interference in the running of universities is damaging efforts to build world-class institutions, an international conference heard on 2 November.

In Shanghai on the opening day of the Third International Conference on World-Class Universities, speakers criticised the restrictions on institutional autonomy imposed by governments in a number of nations.

In a keynote speech, Jamil Salmi, the World Bank’s tertiary education co-ordinator, said that there was a growing international “preoccupation” with world-class universities, measured through ranking systems such as Times Higher Education’s annual World University Rankings.

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