The Transforming Power of Scientific Knowledge: A Study of Human Development on a Global Scale in Terms of Academic Efficiency

Abstract

Knowledge, and especially scientific knowledge, is crucial in terms of transforming societies, and making social structures manageable and sustainable. This can be seen in the fact that the universities which are at the top of the global university rankings are mostly located in countries that are the center of attraction. The aim of this study is to examine the positive effects of academic productivity, which is of great importance in optimizing social conditions, on human development on a global scale with a statistically provable technique. In order to understand this relationship more clearly, our study has compared countries according to their academic productivity using the Multidimensional Scaling Analysis method and established a relationship between this and human development. As a result of the analysis carried out within the scope of the study, which used data from 178 countries from the time period of 1996-2019, it was concluded that the relationship between academic productivity and human development was only at a medium level. This suggests that, in addition to the need for scientific knowledge to be used for the improvement of social conditions, scientific knowledge is limited to certain organizations, which leads to the elitism of scientific knowledge.