Successful strategies to be learnt from world-class universities

Throughout the present paper we want to argue the idea that higher education is strongly linked with research, innovation, and competitive advantage and thus plays a crucial role not only for the individual and societal development but also in the process of delivering the National and European Strategy, to drive forward growth. Universities are the main actors responsible to provide the highly skilled human capital that Europe needs in order to create jobs, successful businesses, and prosperity. The ambitious aim to become a world-class university has its roots not just in rational (financial) considerations, but also in the symbolic role of such universities. The rankings made the competition between the states very visible and thus, are most commonly recognized as an indicator of success due to excellence-driven policies. Within this work we bring arguments and examples about which are the most efficient strategies of world-class universities. The first section of the paper we argue the roles of universities within nowadays economic and social world. The second section of the paper highlights the conceptual issue of world-class universities, the motivation and the determinants of such a goal. Within sections three of the paper we benchmark the key factors of two main international ranking (the THES and SJTU) and we analyse the successful strategies of famous world-class universities. According to the research conclusions and to our considerations we suggest that a valid option would be for universities to follow the international trend towards becoming a world-class university. Also an opportunity would be to develop themselves into learning organizations.