The third annual W100 Reputation Academy took place at Churchill College, Cambridge between 21-25 May, with participants from universities around the world

The challenges of having effective methodologies and data collection processes were highlighted recently with US News & World Report pulling a top MBA course from one of its key rankings.

It is not only Higher Education that is obsessed with rankings; they are seemingly everywhere, perhaps given the media-friendly hooks they provide.

Australia: Higher education remains a major political battleground Down Under.  The Government has been trying for some time to force through major changes to the funding of the sector, only to be knocked back by Parliament.

It’s a busy time of year for rankings. In the past few weeks, we’ve seen the publication of the 2018 US News & World Report Best Global Universities

A key recommendation in the Rankings Influencers research is to ensure that academics are attending high-quality international conferences, a key factor in building reputation.

Reputation has focused much on China over recent weeks with the 5 yearly National Congress of the Communist Party taking place and the bolstering of the power of President Xi Jinping.

Academics whose opinions are canvassed for world university rankings are sceptical of the methodologies used and often don’t make evidence-based decisions when nominating the best universities, according to new research by the World 100 Reputation Network.

When the room is filled with communications professionals, you’d expect the networking session at the W100 Annual Conference to be a lively affair. And it is. If you could listen in to the conversations taking place, you would hear colleagues sharing their experiences with peers from across the world.

I was there to run some reputation workshops for Japanese universities keen to improve their image, and attract more international students, plus present findings of a study for the British Council in Japan on how UK universities made the most of the Olympics.