WoW! Wouter on the Web

So far I did not notice any proper research on the role of university rankings in relation to university marketing. Of course, I am aware of many instances that the importance of university rankings have been mentioned in this respect, but evidence to substantiate these claims are rare.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised by the research of Liang-Hsuan Chen (2008) which only passed my screen today. She found that for Asian graduate students attending Canadian universities the rankings played an important role in university selection. She found:

Graduate students enrolled in professional programs ranked factors such as the ranking of the program and affordability of tuition with high importance in choosing a Canadian graduate school. The fact that the ranking of program was ranked with the highest importance by this group of students was in part due to the availability of program ranking information and marketing efforts (e.g., the MBA Tour) undertaken by the programs.

My impression from this piece of research, whether you like it or not, rankings do play their role in the perception and choice of international students in their selection of university to complete their graduate education. Rankings have different purposes Chen explains:

Reputational ranking became a proxy for the quality of education. Although much criticized by academics for its lack of both validity and reliability, reputational ranking serves three purposes: first, it is a promotional tool for higher education institutions to recruit students; second, it is an assessing tool for international students to screen out competitive choices; and third, it is a marketing and signaling tool for students themselves after they graduate.

So it’s not only important to be present in the various University rankings. You better make sure you rank well!

References
Chen, Liang-Hsuan (2008) Internationalization or International Marketing? Two Frameworks for Understanding International Students’ Choice of Canadian Universities, Journal of Marketing For Higher Education, 18(1): 1-33, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08841240802100113 (Subscription required)