InterviewWhat defines research excellence in era of global challenges?
THE says universities must turn research into real-world impact through innovation, global partnerships
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Editor’s note
This is the second of a two-part series examining the future of higher education through interviews with executives at major global university ranking organizations. The series is supported by the Press Promotion Fund of the Korea Press Foundation.
LONDON — The race for global university excellence is entering a new phase. Producing influential research is no longer enough. Universities are increasingly judged by how effectively they transform knowledge into innovation, industry partnerships and real-world impact.
Phil Baty, chief global affairs officer at Times Higher Education
"Leading universities must demonstrate that their work contributes not only to academic scholarship, but also to innovation, industry, public policy and solutions to global challenges," Phil Baty, chief global affairs officer at Times Higher Education (THE), said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.
"A modern global research university has to translate its ideas into the real world through intellectual property, industry collaboration and patents."
Research has long been the cornerstone of THE's world university rankings, reflecting the organization's original mission of helping governments and university leaders benchmark research competitiveness rather than serving primarily as a guide for prospective students.
"The original concept of the Times Higher rankings was actually for university strategic leaders and governments," Baty said. "Research was the main arena for international competitiveness."
Today, however, Baty argues that the definition of research excellence is evolving. While publications and citations remain essential, universities are increasingly expected to show how their discoveries create tangible benefits for society.
"You cannot really be a world-class university unless you're demonstrating real economic and social impact," he said.
The broader view was also reflected in THE’s rankings methodology.
Recognizing what Baty describes as universities' "third mission" — turning research into innovation and economic impact — THE introduced a patent indicator in 2023.
"Universities drive the economy by translating ideas from the laboratory into the real world," he said. "They create new knowledge that helps solve the world's biggest challenges and fuels economic growth."
Korea is among the countries best positioned for this shift. Baty mentioned that many Korean universities have built close partnerships with industry and established strong records in patents and technology transfer.
"Korea does it outstandingly," he said. "A lot of East Asian universities are way ahead of Western universities in this arena. They're much more closely aligned with the economic needs of the nation."
The challenge, Baty said, is that real-world impact is harder to measure than research output such as counting papers or citations.
THE is reviewing new sources of data, including policy citations, media references, spin-offs and other forms of knowledge transfer.
Meanwhile, metrics such as social media reach or media visibility require particular caution because they can be heavily influenced by language, culture and the popularity of different platforms, making global comparisons difficult.
"We're constantly reviewing the wider research landscape," he said. "But we wouldn't put it in the ranking until we were really sure it was fair and global and rigorous."
Image of the Times Higher Education (THE) Sustainability Impact Rankings 2026 / Captured from THE website
International collaborations for global challenges
As universities seek greater global impact, international collaboration is also becoming an important source of competitiveness. Challenges such as artificial intelligence (AI), climate change and poverty demand global research partnerships rather than isolated national efforts.
"When it comes to climate action, eradicating poverty or technological change driven by AI, these are global endeavors," Baty said. "Universities need to be sharing knowledge on the global stage."
Baty argued that international research partnerships have become increasingly important not only for advancing scientific discovery, but also for raising the global visibility and influence of universities.
This remains one of the biggest challenges for Korean higher education. Despite strong performance in research productivity, patents and industry collaboration, Korean universities continue to lag behind many global peers in international research co-authorship.
Greater collaboration with overseas researchers would help amplify the global reach of Korean scholarship, he said.
"The more you're collaborating, the more you're partnering with the rest of the world, the more people see Korean research," Baty said. "You need to show the world how good Korean research is."
As higher education continues to evolve, THE is also exploring how its own assessment framework should respond.
Among the areas under review are research integrity, as publication and citation systems face growing risks from manipulation, citation cartels and AI-generated content.
Baty said THE is also developing a Digital and AI Maturity Index to examine how universities are integrating AI into teaching, research, administration and institutional strategy. But he stressed that both initiatives remain under development.
"If that matures properly and if we get data that's rigorous enough globally, it's theoretically something we could integrate into the world rankings eventually," he said.
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Rankings should guide, not drive
Baty also pushed back against criticism that global rankings encourage universities to chase scores rather than pursue their own missions.
Instead, he argued that rankings should function as a source of strategic intelligence, helping institutions benchmark themselves against global peers and better understand emerging trends in higher education.
"Rankings should inform strategy. They shouldn't drive strategy," Baty said.
Citing the saying that the dog should wag the tail, not the other way around, he said rankings are meant to provide strategic intelligence and benchmarking, not dictate institutional behavior.
As universities adapt to the AI era and an increasingly competitive global landscape, he emphasized that the role of rankings is not to prescribe a single model of success, but to provide the evidence institutions need to chart their own course.
"We should see ourselves as supporting the sector, not dictating how the sector should be," he said.