Inaugural Entry and Classification of Universities

After undertaking some administrative duty at the HKUST Business School, I have noticed that many people are not familiar with how the knowledge we learn in a business school could affect our daily life and the broader community.  Some people still think that it is unnecessary to have business education at the undergraduate level because a person will naturally pick up the business knowledge as he/she grows up.  I call this a naive view of business education.  It is naive because it simplifies business education into some sort of popular wisdom, and undermines the rich foundation that builds the business knowledge that we learn in a university today.

To rectify this naive view, I reckon that one good way is to showcase what we, the business professors, do in our research, and how our research can create a difference to the world.  Our school has been actively doing this through our business insights series, but it may be helpful to give this task a lighter treatment here.  So, I created this blog mostly to share what I have learned from (and, very occasionally, contribute to) the business literature.  I hope readers will find this blog helpful in appreciating how a systematic treatment of business subjects can enrich our life.

For this first entry, I have not selected any business topic.  However, the following is an excellent piece shared by a renowned accounting scholar who helped found our school back in the 1990s.  The article discusses the differences between the various tiers of universities in the world, what makes a top university, and why an all-rounded research emphasis underscores the road to success of building a top, impactful university.  It is a food-for-thought for those who do not understand why many universities are willingly spending huge amount of resources on academic research which seems hardly accessible to the general public.

漫谈二流大学