The Imports of Overseas Publications and School Ranking in Higher Education: A Feasibility Study

Abstract

This study examines the feasibility of publication imports that may significantly change school rankings in higher education. A small offshore branch campus is used as a case study. The results show that a higher ranking of the offshore campus is largely due to visiting faculties from its parent university in the United States. This implies that the imports of overseas publications from the parent university play a significant role in university rankings. For example, an increase in research outputs by one standard deviation will raise the school ranking from a third-tier to a second-tier in South Korea. This can be done by importing publications from the parent university in the United States.