OCTOBER 1, 2014 Michael Stopford

Scope1. Competitive landscape

2. Reputation management – process and levers

3. Communications – fizz and focus

Scope1. Competitive landscape

2. Reputation management – process and levers

3. Communications – fizz and focus

In today’s competitive landscape a university has to be

as intentional in protecting, safeguarding, enhancing

and promoting its reputation as any corporation.

You face global competition just as multinational

corporations do. You compete for the best students,

the best faculty, the best managers: globally, not just in

your cities, your regions, your countries.

Global Competition

Today’s higher education landscape is global

• The competition is global

• The opportunity is global

International student recruitment: our young friends in Guangzhou

and Shanghai now have a lot more choices. They can go to Michigan

or Chicago, Manchester or Warwick, Melbourne or Adelaide or

Toronto – or stay at home in one of their new campuses.

Rankings: Impact

Corporate Reputation Rankings

Fortune:

World's 50 Most

Admired Companies

Harris

Interactive/WSJ:

Reputation Quotient

Business Ethics

Magazine/CRO:

100 Best Corporate

Citizens

Reputation Institute:

RepTrak Pulse

United States

Reputation

Institute: Global

RepTrak Pulse

Key Attributes

1: Innovation

2: Leadership/

Management

3: Community

Responsibility

4: Environmental

Responsibility

5: Quality

Products/Processes

6: Financial

Performance

7: Workplace

8: Good Governance

Covered Not Covered

University Reputation Rankings

Outcomes…

how “schools ranked highly received increased visibility and prestige, stronger

applicants, more alumni giving, and, most important, greater revenue potential.”

(to quote Boston magazine again).

What do they measure?

University rankings systems craft their lists by measuring a combination of the

performance and perception of higher educational institutions

REPUTATION = PERFORMANCE + PERCEPTION

Deconstructing…

Focusing on peer assessment. Which is where reputation is almost a self-fulfilling

prophecy: your reputation depends on how your peers perceive your reputation.

“Deconstructing” the rankings

Some Key Rankings

International

• Shanghai Jiao Tong World Universities Rankings

• QS World University Rankings

• TIMES World University Rankings

National

• US News and World Report University Rankings (USA)

• Forbes America’s Top Colleges (USA)

• Princeton Review (USA)

• College Factual (USA)

• LinkedIn (USA…brand new!)

• The Sunday Times University Guide (UK)

• Maclean’s University Rankings (Canada)

QS World University Rankings

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2. University of Cambridge

3. Imperial College London

4. Harvard University

5. University of Oxford

6. UCL (University College London)

7. Stanford University

8. California Institute of Technology

9. Princeton University

10. Yale University

Perception criteria – 50%

Top 10

1. Academic reputation (40%)

- Based on survey data

2. Employer Reputation (10%)

- Based on survey data

TIMES Higher Education World University Rankings

1. California Institute of Technology

2. Harvard University

3. University of Oxford

4. Stanford University

5. Massachusetts Institute of Tech.

6. Princeton University

7. University of Cambridge

8. University of California, Berkeley

9. University of Chicago

10. Imperial College London

Perception criteria – 45% Top 10

1. Teaching (15% on peer

assessment, 15% performance

data)

The learning environment - the

dominant indicator here being

the results of the world's largest

invitation-only academic

reputation survey.

2. Research (30%)

Volume, income and reputation

for research excellence among

its peers, based on the 10,000-

plus responses to our annual

academic reputation survey.

Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities

1. Harvard University

2. Stanford University

3. Massachusetts Institute of Tech.

4. University of California-Berkley

5. University of Cambridge

6. Princeton University

7. California Institute of Technology

8. Columbia University

9. University of Chicago

10. University of Oxford

Perception criteria – N/A

Top 10

US News and World Report University

Rankings (USA)

1. Princeton University

2. Harvard University

3. Yale University

4. Columbia University

4. Stanford University

4. University of Chicago

7. Massachusetts Institute of Tech.

8. Duke University

8. University of Pennsylvania

10. California Institute of Technology

USNews is just about to launch

its own world university rankings.

USNews

Perception criteria – 22.5%

• Undergraduate academic reputation (22.5%)

• (survey data, opinions of those in a position

to judge a school's undergraduate academic

excellence)

Other Criteria

• Retention (22.5%)

• Faculty Resources (20%)

• Student Selectivity (12.5%)

• Financial Resources (10%)

• Graduation rate performance (7.5%)

• Alumni giving rate (5%)

Princeton Leads U.S. News List; Dartmouth Drops From Top 10

….student outcry over sexual harassment and reports of fraternity hazing

…….. ‘Animal House’

Scope1. Deconstructing the rankings

2. Reputation: performance and perception – and process

3. Communications enhancing reputation

Scope1. Deconstructing the rankings

2. Reputation: performance and perception – and process

3. Communications enhancing reputation

#1: Coca-Cola, Marketing, US

#2: The New Yorker, English, NYC

http://www.uis.unesco.org/EDUCATION/Pages/international-student-flow-viz.aspx

UNESCO database

http://www.uis.unesco.org/EDUCATION/Pages/international-student-flow-viz.aspx

UNESCO database

http://www.uis.unesco.org/EDUCATION/Pages/international-student-flow-viz.aspx

UNESCO database

Scope1. Competitive landscape

2. Reputation management – process and levers

3. Communications – fizz and focus

Reputation and student choice go beyond academics, just as

companies are perceived to be more than their products.

The Student as Consumer

• Safety

• Sustainability and ethics

• Athletics

• Cafeteria/food service

• Prestige

• Cost

• Internships and jobs, etc.

• Location

• The most beautiful campus

• The best social life

2222

Defining “Reputation”

Reputation is driven by:

• Overall quality or character

• How people judge it, and in what regard they hold it

Reputation is a combination of two factors:

• Performance

• Perception

Performance + Perception = Reputation

WEBSTER’S DEFINITION:

rep·u·ta·tion – nounOverall quality or character … seen or judged by people in

general; a place in public esteem or regard

2323

US

Argentina

Brazil

Canada

France

Germany

Great Britain

India

Italy

Japan

Mexico

Russia

SA

Turkey

10%

30%

50%

70%

90%

-15.0% -10.0% -5.0% 0.0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0%

DME Productivity

Co

mp

an

y N

et

Fa

vo

rab

ilit

y

Australia

China:

-33.9%Spain

-16.5%

50%

10%

95%

A corporate case study – DME is Productive Above a Corporate

Reputation “Floor” When the Majority of Consumers are Receptive to

Communications

Declining DME ProductivityAve. –Strong Reputation

Declining DME Productivity

Low Reputation

Increasing DME Productivity

Avg. – Strong Reputation

2424

Reputation

Management

Process

4.Input Into

Business Planning

5.Invest & Act

6.Validate &

Re-Calibrate

2.Gather

Perception Measures

1.Gather

Performance DataRepeat process

3.Map the

Findings

25

Perception

Perf

orm

an

ce

Leverage

Fix Analyze

Push

Low Performance, Low Perception

High Performance, Low Perception

High Performance, High Perception

Low Performance, High Perception

Reputation Map: Action

26

#49

Top 100

#168

Northeastern University

Rankings: A Case Study:intentional…..

By Max Kutner | Boston Magazine | September 2014

27

Peer Perception

Scope1. Competitive landscape

2. Reputation management – process and levers

3. Communications – fizz and focus

A unified story is important. It has to be connected.

Communicating: telling a unified story

What differentiates the institution?

What is its story? Its voice? Its narrative?

What is its unique value?

What does it do better than anyone else?

What makes it distinctive?

What do its messengers - current students, alumni, partners - say about

it?

Georgetown is a world-class research university grounded in

the liberal arts. It has many different centers and programs and

academic disciplines. But it is united by its brand identity, its

“mission” – an altruistic, service-oriented purpose through the

Catholic and Jesuit tradition

Northeastern is about coops – and opportunity = and jobs

Connectivity

The Connected College

How we communicate in our

hyper-connected

hyper-competitive world

Reputation being formed every

day by the millions upon

millions of little communications

transactions

Chief Listening Officer?

College confidential

Yik Yak

Communicating: The Connected College

02-14-2013 at 2:27 pm edited

November 2013 in Women's Colleges

The WC experience sounds like

something I would love. But like most

girls, I still want the chance to interact

with boys, have guy friends, and

date…

…Which interact the most and

in what ways with nearby

coed schools?

Also, what type of guys are connected

to the colleges?

….I've heard that -most- guys at

counterpart Hampden-Sydney are

conservative, partying, "manly men"

types (which aren't my

type personally).

Communicating: Story Telling

Your reputation with students, faculty, alumni, donors, corporate partners, and

government funders ... is all connected.

So you have to treat it holistically, recognizing the connectivity.

Not just a collection of academic departments and programs and research

centers – brand identity, a story, that informs all branches

One way of doing that is through story-telling and story-mining – the stories that

every institution embodies.

We have to be careful here and not “unauthentic.”

Visual – video – infographics

Curate the content ... creating conversation.

Fizz or Flop? Goucher’s Video

“trivialization” of education

in America

Fizz or Flop? Remember New Coke

The University of California released a statement Friday that it would cease use of a newly

released logo following “a significant negative response by students, alumni and other

members of our community.”

Daniel M. Dooley, senior vice president for external relations at the University of California

Office of the President, wrote that the response to the new logo had resulted in an

unfortunate community controversy.

Brand Authenticity

Communicating: The ToneBe transparent

Human

Honest

Modest

Informative

Helpful

Humorous (if possible)

Non-defensive

Authentic

Credible

Acknowledge mistakes

Interactive

Targeted and individualized

Unified and integrated

Personal and responsive

Global – the ultimate connectivity

Our marketing, our appeal, our platforms have to be consciously,

intentionally GLOBAL and internationally connected

You need to use communications to

• Expand your reputation globally

• Communicate and market your offering overseas

• Support overseas ventures, campuses, programs and initiatives

• Forge and sustain international institutional partnerships

• Recruit international students

• Create a global culture

Communicating: Global

Communicating ConvergenceUniversities are now centers for building connections – Partnerships,

Relationships and Networks

Business schools have to be entrepreneurial and innovative.

• They have to incorporate creativity: previously the province of the arts.

Technology infuses everything; it has escaped from engineering.

International permeates every sphere; not just in International relations

Communications must acknowledge convergence – forge a uniting identity.

The new architecture of communications – design thinking

Now accepting ideas.

Now accepting innovation.

Now accepting applications.

Xxx University, Class of 2018.

Your scores don't define you. Your ideas do.

You are more than a transcript.You are more than an SAT score.Show us who you really are.

Your scores don't define you. Your ideas do.

You are more than a transcript.You are more than an SAT score.Show us who you really are.

The Connected University• Unique

• Unified

• Intentional

• Interactive

• International

• Convergence – the Connected University

Universities establish

relevance and exert

influence through the

connections they make

The transformational agenda…

…can also bring all

kinds of risks

Thank you

41

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