Higher education and the imperative to build reputations

The purpose of this paper is to suggest that an increasingly powerful global dimension provides an imperative for higher education institutions (HEIs) in differing national settings to build and manage their reputations, and that this affects HEIs at the micro level.

The data were collected using semi‐structured interviews from middle/senior managers of social science faculties (or schools), at four case study institutions, three of which are in East Asia; it is the views of these academics and managers about institutional reputation management which form the basis of this paper. Global league tables are interpreted as the medium of reputation, the means to achieve reputation, and the motive to impose reputation management as a key element in strategic directions.

The research resonates with Hawkins’ notion of a Dominant Education Paradigm, and suggests that this global dimension has penetrated case study institutions in three very different East Asian polities, in the same way that it influences a typical institution in the “Anglo” environment, and that this has resulted in converging institutional governance activities, at the micro‐level, in these unique national contexts.

The author argues that looking through the lens of reputation management is significant in that it demonstrates both changing priorities locally and converging practice globally.