During the first decade of the 21st century and as a consequence of the emergence of international rankings, the term World Class University –University of world rank– becomes a fashion phrase (Salmi, 2009). From this moment on, studies begin to emerge that try to analyze the characteristics and singularities of these world-class universities. According to successive comparative studies of the World Bank, many of the attributes that world-class universities possess could be extrapolated to research universities. One of the best known authors, Philip Altbach, argues in his reports that, since the natural evolution of this era has complemented the traditional approach of universities - teaching - and directed it towards research, the institutions that deepened it They are now in dominant positions with respect to others. At this point, the specialist clarifies that research can only lead to a university to be recognized to the extent that it is "an investigation that lowers the boundaries of knowledge, that can be measured and communicated" (Altbach, 2015). It is because of these studies that the term “world-class university” begins to align with the research concept, giving rise to a new international paradigm inheriting the American research intensive university concept in the last decade: The University of Research (Lavalle and de Nicolás , 2017).
The World Bank's position on research universities is also clear: they should be promoted in many other countries. In the Constructing Knowledge Societies: New Challenges for Terciary Education study, the organization indicates that, within the tertiary education system, research universities are fundamental “for the training of professionals, scientists and researchers that the economy needs, and for the generation of new knowledge in support of the national innovation system» (World Bank, 2002). Another specialist from that organization cites an analysis on the creation of patents in 2007, which shows that it is universities and research institutes that drive scientific advances in certain areas - such as biotechnology, in this specific case - instead of companies (Salmi, 2009).
Research universities are institutions where a good proportion of the new current knowledge that appears in the world is based on tests, explorations and analysis, thereby establishing key relationships between global science, the social sciences of the country that promotes it, Culture and technology Along these lines, as a generator of intellectual and scientific tendencies, it is an important axis of the economy and knowledge of the 21st century. Therefore, they can also be understood as complex and elite organizations, a space where only small populations of students and teachers access, usually the brightest and best qualified of entire nations. This dynamic is what allows an important consolidation and feedback in the academic community, and that the students themselves participate in research projects and become part of their achievements (OECD 2009, Salmi 2009; Altbach et al 2011).
In many developed countries there is a consensus that research universities have contributed to updating disciplines and specializations in the academic and scientific fields, and at the same time to deepen new areas of knowledge and understand more complex realities. With this, a new awareness has also appeared that postulates that many of the knowledge developed in the 21st century seems to come from the limits of those same studies and warns about the desirability of demanding new ones that complement and strengthen them (Salmi, 2009). This process has led research universities to a new paradigm from which certain questions arise as if their existence as institutions were linked to the needs of the communities that shelter them, and if they promoted a type of education that guarantees equal opportunities for all its audiences (Altbach et al 2010).
Although high-performance education systems are not exhausted only with research universities - there are also polytechnic institutes, humanities schools, colleges, traditional universities - and which together produce the specialists that the labor market needs in In all sectors, it is also necessary to understand the features of the era in which they exist: a very marked role of the private sector that complements the State's concern, mass access to education and the possibility of projections to populations that a few decades ago they would have had that opportunity, the privatization of education and the establishment of business models based on teaching and specialization, the emergence of new research powers in Asia, the rise of low-cost digital development and its impact on technology and technology. innovation, globalization and also the successive economic crises. All this influences the perspective about their role in contemporary society (Salmi, 2009).
Characteristics of research universities
As already mentioned, the World Bank reports are conclusive: thinking about the establishment of research universities today is equivalent to thinking about the establishment of world-class universities. The high qualifications and performance possibilities presented by graduates of these organizations, the prestige associated with the publications presented by students and teachers about their research and studies, and the effectiveness of the transfer of knowledge they provide to the private and public sector, demonstrate that research universities are a new educational model that integrates knowledge and makes them interact in the global market at different levels (Slaughter and Rhoades 2004; OECD 2009; Salmi, 2009).
From that approach, the operation of research universities depends on the same factors as those of world-wide rank: a potential talent concentrated among teachers, researchers, students and fund managers with which the institution is managed, a successful and flexible governance that leads it to rethink itself in different cultural and political contexts without sacrificing its academic and financial autonomy and its organizational vision, and abundant sources of resources - in the form of donations, contributions and investments from the public and private sector - that allow the deployment of tools and spaces that facilitate research and experimentation (Salmi, 2009; World Bank, 2002).
In that sense, research universities represent more an ideal about what is expected of tertiary education in the future. Hence, in many cases they are considered elitist: they should be considered because of their meritocratic characteristics, which includes not only the high standards of education and the high tuition costs, but also because of their hiring policies, because of their project financing strategies. research and internationalization, and for the constant monitoring of the qualifications of its teaching and administrative staff. They are not necessarily democratic because they would not be based on satisfying the demand of large populations but, on the contrary, they are inclined to discover the merits and perfect an excellence that many people could not access or develop. These research universities represent a kind of commitment that is required to continue at the forefront of knowledge worldwide and, at the same time, to propose new ways that de-structure the status quo of the education models of traditional institutions (Salmi, 2009).
From this line of thinking, there is one more reason why research universities retain a meritocratic inspiration, rather than elitist, compared to other types of organizations: from them comes the greatest amount of information and knowledge that will then be used by the scientific community - in the form of medical and military advances, for example - and the private sector - like the pharmaceutical industry, to name a case. There are few institutions in the world that carry out pure research in the sense that their results can then be channeled as benefits in the form of products and services in different sectors. This also explains why these universities are related to high budgets (Salmi, 2009).
In a way, this same dimension called elitist is what has generated not a few criticisms of research universities. The main one is that, due to their own dynamics, they could be closely linked to companies and corporations, which could distort the results of investigations under possible conflicts of interest, if not cases of corruption (Slaughter and Leslie, 1997).
Despite these criticisms, it is these universities that appear in the top positions of the rankings - as discussed above - and those that - mostly - contribute to the development of science and the connection of the university with society. For this reason we can affirm that world-class universities (according to the rankings mentioned above) are research universities although with certain nuances in their main characteristics, such as a relevant teaching, a pioneering research and a great krelevance and relationship with society (Cazorla et al, 2014). Later, this last specialist developed, after having worked in several universities (UCLA, UCB, UPM and UPS) a report - synthesized in the following pages - which emphasizes the gradualness of the research university concept as a goal that can be converted in a plan of continuous improvement and that contributes a strategic vision. As an example, research universities place more emphasis on postgraduate studies than on undergraduate degrees, which does not mean they are only graduate. In this sense, a university that wants to change can start with an international level postgraduate that is gradually getting rich and improving.
