Global ideas on research and higher education

ECOPER consultants and ICREA professor Diego Blas Temiñoare collaborating in a research project aiming at mapping the dissemination of global ideas on research and higher education policies throughout national institutions, with a focus on developing countries. The research is based on computerized content analysis and follows a four-phase plan.

First, global ideas on research and higher education are captured with RAKE algorithms for Rapid Automatic Keyword Extraction from webpages and reports published by international organizations like UNESCO and the OECD. An initial analysis of 11 links with 4,918 words in UNESCO webpages on science and higher education shows that UNESCO has already identified a series of keywords that reflect a normative approach. These keywords include  ‘SDGs’, ‘global public goods’, ‘global progress’, ‘peace’, ‘lobal challenge’, ‘international cooperation’, ‘intercultural dialogue’, ‘fundamental freedom’, ‘human rights’, ‘inter-university cooperation’, ‘Africa’, and refugees’.

Secondly, a database of national ministries and agencies responsible for research and higher education is being set up. This database covers links to webpages and social media accounts. Thirdly, the dissemination of global ideas is measured through big data techniques supported with the statistical software R. Finally, several hypotheses inspired by neo-institutionalist theory are tested through statistic regression.

This project forms part of a broader research line led by ECOPER which consists in the use of computerized content analysis to measure the dissemination of ideas related to the 2030 Agenda and its contestation. Such research incudes big data analysis of 4,287 cultural policy measures and its alignment with the UNESCO 2005 Convention, and the use and misuse of culture in cosmopolitan / anti-cosmopolitan discourse.