Does anyone use information from university rankings?

Abstract

This paper estimates the effect that the league table published in the Sunday Times University Guide has on perceptions of the quality of universities by head teachers and academics, and on Home, EU and Overseas student applications, using data from 2005 to 2009 and a System GMM model for dynamic panel data. Our main result is that university rankings influence the perceptions of head teachers and academics, but have no statistically significant impact on student applications. There is evidence of persistence in perceptions and applications, suggesting the importance of reputational factors. Perceptions of head teachers and academics of pre-92 and post-92 universities are influenced by different criteria.