Five strategies to cultivate university reputation

Like a triangle, reputation has three sides: integrating stakeholders, contributing to the overall environment, and preserving institutional integrity from any interference. 

In these turbulent times, reputation is key for universities and their leadership, even as surveys from the US to Australia suggest public confidence in higher education is falling. Changes in technology, de-globalisation, geopolitical tensions, and debate around institutional neutrality and free speech mean that university leaders have fewer certainties when asking how their institutions gain society’s trust. 

Perhaps the key lies in how we have understood university reputation until now.

Let me be clear: reputation should be a principle of governance aimed at preserving the integrity of universities. It is a complex reality that integrates three perspectives: an inside-out approach, an outside-in approach, and a co-creation of a value environment approach. This reputation triangle may seem theoretical, but it explains some of the current crises. The three approaches are:

• The “inside-out” reputation refers to the institutional character or behaviour that is the source of academic performance and good execution in the university’s core functions 
• The “outside-in” reputation is the classic view of reputation as the set of perceptions, beliefs and attitudes that stakeholders have about the university 
• The “side-to-side” or co-created reputation is the transversal approach that learns from global trends, drives value co-creation and contributes to social causes in the environment.

Historically, managing university (and corporate) reputation has prioritised stakeholder management and adaptability to the context, neglecting the first, and possibly most important, approach: that reputation is born and cultivated within the organisation and expressed outwardly. The reputational crisis of many universities is a crisis of identity: what is the unique and credible purpose that makes us distinguishable? How do we protect our professors’ intellectual work above market interests (whether capital or ideas)? How do we safeguard our universities’ integrity against external forces?

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Universities must integrate the voices of all their stakeholders in order to be more open and inclusive, but they must also remember the purpose for which they were founded: to transmit and generate knowledge, preserve the free circulation of ideas, and promote the holistic growth of their students. It is the task of university governance to seek a balanced pursuit of the three reputation approaches.

Principles should inspire governance and illuminate practice. Reputation as a principle of governance must include an operational model that allows for institutional improvement. Reputation management requires professional capabilities, new functions and intentional actions. 

Strategies to support university reputation

Here are five strategies to guide an operational model for university reputation led by the governance team:

Clarify the university’s purpose 

A university must dedicate resources and teams to ensure that its institutional mission is clear, strengthen internal culture, and express and defend genuine values from external or internal interference. University brands should prioritise a distinct and credible purpose. A clear mission differentiates the university in the market and creates a sense of belonging among internal audiences. Embracing too many missions and having ambiguous purposes can lead to reputation fragmentation and an institution that fades into the landscape.

Embrace interdisciplinarity

Technology and increasingly polarised ideologies have brought profound social changes that require new ways of thinking about the transformative power of intellectual education. Universities need to introduce multidisciplinary programmes that promote intellectual virtues, dialogue and the pursuit of truth, respect for diverse viewpoints and constructive disagreement. These programmes have been shown to empower students as whole people. Interdisciplinarity can also foster civic qualities such as integrity, responsibility and respect for difference.

Practise strategic communication

University brands are much stronger when leadership teams manage communications with a specific university lens. Reputational risk management, public affairs, institutional relations and branding are better addressed through a global communications strategy, not just from a legal, marketing or functional communications perspective. Leadership communication strengthens the brand across all audiences: prospective students and families, but also faculty, current students, alumni, businesses, donors, communities and governments.

Create governance and culture that listen

Universities must exercise a culture of listening and integrate it into their governance models. Understanding the perceptions of all stakeholders is essential for any reputation strategy. Universities should have dashboards with intangible indicators: brand sentiments, satisfaction, recommendation, support and engagement. Listening systems, which include surveys and focus groups, give institutions insight into external perceptions, allow them to integrate stakeholder views, and can inform decision-making.

Be sensitive to contextual intelligence

Recently, many universities have found that their decisions to operate in global environments also bring tensions and imbalances. There is no turning back. Therefore, institutions must be much more sensitive to understanding the environments in which they operate and the social, political and cultural trends that surround their activities. Taking a step back from public events and defending values and principles requires contextual intelligence – the ability to look at and learn from the environment – and strong leadership within the academic community. 

From this perspective, reputation is the most valuable intangible endowment of universities, ensuring their long-term sustainability; it is a strategic asset resulting from honest, coherent and well-communicated behaviour, which will continue to bear fruitful outcomes for their future.

Santiago Fernández-Gubieda is chief reputation officer at the University of Navarra, Spain.

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