The world‐class league tables and the sustaining of international reputations in higher education

Abstract

The purpose of this exploratory article is to broaden our understanding of institutional reputation. It argues that it is vital to understand how prestigious institutions of higher education evaluate the basis of their own reputations. While accepting the importance of institutional research outputs, which are so critical to the current ‘world‐class’ ranking lists, it puts forward alternative criteria that elite institutions are likely to embrace, and suggests ways in which their significance could be researched. There have been two main academic approaches to the ranking lists: the first explores their methodological weaknesses and suggests ways in which they could be improved; the second offers a moral condemnation – they are invariably poorly constructed, have negative policy connotations and their use should be restricted. This article takes a different approach: we need to know what institutions believe is the basis of their own reputations, and what changes they are prepared to pursue in order to sustain it.

Keywords:

• collegiality
• league table rankings
• research outputs
• student access
• world‐class universities