Academic and Public Reputation of Universities: Priorities, Methods, and Management Tools

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the modern content of university reputation. It reveals the correlation of the concepts of reputation and image, and provides on overview of main factors influencing the reputation of universities. Within the study, the authors rely on the approaches of international rating agencies to determine the academic reputation of universities and the methodology for determining the indicators of ranking universities. The authors proceed from the assumption that the transformation processes taking place in the field of education show that academic reputation alone is no longer enough to attract applicants and representatives of other interested groups. Based on the results of the study, the article proposes the use of the concept of public (or social) reputation, as is customary in the business environment. At the same time, the authors distinguish “traditional” and digital contours of reputation. They note that the specificity of the educational sphere is determined by its diversity and multivector nature of the results of the activities of educational institutions, which determines the specifics of the use of communication tools in the formation and preservation of the public reputation of universities.