Rankings are a mirror, not a strategy

I’ve seen rankings from more angles than most. I led the reputation strategy that took Newcastle University to its highest-ever placement in the QS World University Rankings, I chaired the QS Global Advisory Board for Europe, and I now work at QS with universities around the world. So I’ll be honest about what I’ve learned: rankings matter a great deal, and they work best when you don’t chase them.

That may sound contradictory. It isn’t. Rankings shape the choices of students, partners, funders and governments, and pretending otherwise does an institution no favours. But a ranking is a reflection of what a university has already become. It shows you where you stand. It can’t tell you who you want to be.

The problem with chasing the table

When an institution sets “rise ten places” as its strategy, a few things tend to happen. Effort concentrates on the indicators that seem easiest to move. Decisions are made to suit the methodology rather than the mission. And when the results arrive, colleagues across the university feel measured by something they don’t understand and didn’t choose.

The improvements rarely last, because they’re not built on anything the institution genuinely values.

A ranking shows you where you stand. It can’t tell you who you want to be.

Using rankings well

The universities I’ve seen improve most consistently use rankings in a different way.

As a diagnostic. The underlying data is far more useful than the headline position. It shows how you’re perceived by academics and employers in different parts of the world, how your research is cited, how international your community is. Each of those tells you something worth knowing about your institution, ranked or not.

As a mirror on reputation. For many institutions, the gap between their actual quality and how they’re perceived is the biggest opportunity they have. If your research is excellent but your academic reputation lags, that’s a story you haven’t told well enough, to the right people, in the right places.

As a conversation starter. Rankings give leadership teams a shared, external view to discuss. Used carefully, that conversation can align a university around genuine priorities, rather than dividing it over a number.

What drove our results at Newcastle

When people ask me how Newcastle reached 110th, I tell them we didn’t start with the ranking. We started with what the University was genuinely strong at, built a global brand, research and reputation strategy around those strengths, and made sure the people who shape academic and employer reputation around the world actually heard about them. The ranking followed the work.

That’s the approach I’d recommend to any institution. Decide what you want to be known for. Measure how far perception has caught up with reality. Close the gap with sustained, honest effort, and let the rankings reflect it.

Rankings will keep evolving, and they should. The universities that thrive will be the ones that treat them as a mirror worth looking into regularly, and never mistake the reflection for the plan.

Jonathan Sabarre FCIM MBA is Principal Consultant at QS Quacquarelli Symonds, a keynote speaker and host of Marketing Greats in Higher Education. Get the weekly email or invite him to speak.