Should Accomplished Scholars Lead Research Universities?

A new book by Amanda H. Goodall says, “Yes.” Dr. Goodall is a Leverhulme Fellow at Warwick Business School at the University of Warwick in the UK. Her book is Socrates in the Boardroom: Why Research Universities Should Be Led by Top Scholars (Princeton University Press, 2009). To quote an article in Inside Higher Education,

Goodall … bases her work on analysis of the research records of those who have led top universities, and also on interviews with a number of presidents of top American and British universities.

Her book builds on research she has published previously in which she uses citation rankings (in which scholars are rated by the frequency with which their work is cited by others) as a proxy for academic quality of a scholar. While Goodall acknowledges that such measurements aren’t perfect, she said that they do give a sense of the impact of a given researcher. She has documented more movement to the top ranks (of national and international rankings, which she acknowledges as well are not perfect measures) — both of universities and business schools — at institutions that are led by presidents or deans with high citation rankings.

Ultimately, she says, research universities should be led by those who share a passion for what the institution is about — producing knowledge.