The University Reputation Triangle

The recently concluded course leaves a mandate for universities: rebuild public trust

In his book What are Universities for?, Professor Stefan Collini from the University of Cambridge provided his diagnosis on the current state of higher education: “Never before in history have universities been as numerous and important as they are now, and never before have they suffered from such a lack of trust and loss of identity as they do today.”

The Gallup Institute has put numbers to this concern: in just ten years, in the United States, trust in higher education has dropped by twenty points (from 57% in 2015 to 36% in 2023). In May of this year, the Pew Research Center provided new data for concern: 49% say that having a university degree is less important for getting a well-paying job today than it was 20 years ago.

The mistrust is not a trait unique to the American university setting. Although less pronounced, delegitimisation is also found in other countries and regions. Recently, the Policy Institute at King's College London highlighted the indifference towards universities among people's political priorities when it comes to influencing their vote (they rank 26th out of 29 public interest topics).

The explanation for this loss of relevance is multifactorial and heterogeneous depending on the regions. I will mention the most well-known reasons: the increase in tuition fees in some countries, the loss of value of university degrees, the consolidation of new pathways to the labour market, and the institutional erosion caused by certain debates where ideological and political intersection has taken precedence over the academic mission. In a context of polarisation and dissolution of relationships, trust in institutions is the first thing to be lost.

Trust is the strategic asset that is hardest to build and, as we see, the easiest to lose. In this situation, classic theorisation of corporate reputation can help us reflect.

If we understand how reputation is built, we can obtain some guidelines for reconstruction.

With the clarity and simplicity of Professor Violina Rindova dova, we could say that reputation is built from three approaches, as if they were the sides of a triangle: “inside-out”, “outside-in” and “side-to-side”. The figure requires a brief explanation: the "inside-out" approach links institutional behaviour (mission, culture, and university performance) with value for stakeholder groups; the "outside-in" approach addresses the beliefs, perceptions and attitudes of the stakeholder groups towards the institution; and finally, the “side-to-side” approach takes an interpretative and collaborative look at the context: the political, economic, cultural, and social frameworks that shape the environment in which the university resides.

A strategic management of reputation demands a balanced view of the three approaches, avoiding power imbalances; because, in fact, that is what it is about: the university, the stakeholders and the context shape a political game of relative positions: if one wins, the other loses, thus altering the centre of gravity in the relationships.

Historically, what has happened is that the geometry of reputation has gravitated around two of its sides: the stakeholder groups and the context (the market, in economic terms), leaving the institution’s own vertex the leftover reduced space. The image may seem somewhat theoretical, but some current examples help to visualise the figure.

Two examples: stakeholder management has brought many benefits, but it has also proven complex and sometimes with opposing interests (faculty vs companies, students vs donors, for instance). Universities, some of them globally elite, have taken on a leading role in the public space with positions of moral leadership on certain issues.

Recent geopolitical tensions and 'right narrative' pressures have led many universities to question their mission and leadership. The reflection for now has ended with unthinkable reconsiderations just a year ago (see the return to institutional neutrality and the changes of position at Harvard, among other universities, not only American ones).

What the crisis of trust has revealed is that neglecting the university mission also carries reputational risks.

Reputation is an unstable, complex, and multifactorial state of opinion that must be cultivated with professionalism and care from the three approaches. Take care of the relational ecosystem; learn to coexist in the environment; and clarify the purpose for which universities were founded.

The Harvard Crimson recently had a look back at the tumultuous academic year that is now behind us. The university newspaper argued that behind the controversies of the context and stakeholders lies an unresolved question about the university mission: “Do we exist to educate and research or to promote social good?”. Twelve years after Stefan Collini's warning, the question of identity continues to soar.

Santiago Fernández-Gubieda (PhD)

University of Navarra

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