Quality or reputation? How university rankings matter in sorting of international higher education students across British universities

University rankings are now ubiquitous in the increasingly expanding higher education field. They have emerged in tandem with the global race towards excellence in higher education and as part of the growing expectation of rational, scientific evaluation of performance across a broad range of institutional sectors and human activity. While their omnipresence is acknowledged, we still do not know whether and how they matter. This paper, drawing longitudinal data from the Complete University Guide and the UK Higher Education Statistics Agency, provides an empirical analysis of whether changing position of universities in UK ranking tables impact on their international student recruitment. Findings show that international students are sorted across UK universities not on the basis of objective, precise indicators of quality conveyed by changing institutional position in the ranking tables but by the long-anchored, often socially mediated, institutional reputations. Universities’ reputational prestige, but not their organizational performance as measured in rankings, is the main determinant of their recruitment success.

Referentin: Professor Yasemin Soysal (Department of Sociology, University of Essex, United Kingdom)