1 Welcome to the World Class University: Introduction.- Part I What's in
a Word?.- 2 Disorderly Identities: University rankings and the
re-ordering of the academic mind.- 3 Becoming World Class: What it means
and what it does.- 4 Three Notions of the Global.- Part II World-Class
Around the World.- 5 The Kafkaesque Pursuit of 'World Class': Audit
culture and the reputational arms race in academia.- 6 Complicit
Reproductions in the Global South: Courting world class universities and
global rankings.- 7 Realizing the World Class University: Litigation and
the state.- 8 World Class at All Costs.- 9 The Paradox of the Global
University.- Part III Playing the World-Class Numbers Game.- 10 World
Class Universities, Rankings and the Global Space of International
Students.- 11 What Counts as World Class? Global University Rankings and
Shifts in Institutional Strategies.- 12 The State Role in Excellent
University Policies in the Era of Globalization: The case of China.-
Part IV The Future of World-Class Universities.- 13 The Marketingisation
of Higher Education.- 14 Contesting the Neoliberal Discourse of the
World Class University: 'Digital Socialism', Openness and Academic
Publishing.- 15 Spaces of Life: Transgressions in Conceptualising the
World Class University.- 16 Realising the World-Class University: An
Ecological Approach.