Not long ago, "brand" was an unmentionable word in the higher education landscape--one that came with suspicious connotations of consumer packaged goods and retail. Today, however, there is increasingly broad acceptance that a higher education institution's (HEI's) brand is critical to attracting and retaining the best students and…

This article examines the influence of major institutional components, academic support mechanisms and organisational climate on scholarly productivity in high-ranked universities. Qualitative data were collected from senior academics working in high-ranked Australian universities. The data were examined using thematic descriptive and content…

Sociologists of elite education have argued that understanding educational inequality requires looking beyond persistent class- or race-based gaps in academic achievement at the ways in which privileged youth and families construct their advantages. Meanwhile, scholars focused on summer learning have argued that understanding educational…

This article questions the existing understanding of how global university rankings work to coordinate higher education policy. Rankings are often analyzed as accelerators of reform processes while their differences are overlooked. We suggest studying the particular encounters between rankers and national policy contexts as occasions for friction…

In scientific literature a large number of different conceptual definitions of status found that can be applied as a framework for the analysis of different professions although it should be noted that there is no single, universally accepted, unambiguous definition or theoretical construct. For example, Haralambos (1994) defined reputation as the…

Research publication has increasingly turned into academics' top priority around the world. Since researchers' professional survival/growth in the current competitive academic atmosphere hinges upon their research profile, there is a need for investigating how researchers' possible selves may guide their research productivity. Therefore, in this…

The use of digital technologies has transformed the processes of writing for academic journals and the dissemination and preservation of academic work. It has also made the measurement of the impact of publications in academic journals easier and this information more accessible to authors. In this article I discuss some of the ways in which…

This paper analyses the student decision-making model for international postgraduate (PG) students with a concentration on consumer service marketing principles. Using a grounded theory approach and exploratory techniques (focus groups), it investigates qualitatively why the UK is the destination choice, the rationale for the programme of study…

This study examined how hierarchical positions within the global field of higher education influence the selection of strategic priorities by universities in different parts of the world. The study particularly focused on universities' commitment to third missions as reflected in their strategic plans and compared to their global rankings. The…

First-generation college (FGC) students represent 56% of college students in the United States (RTI International, 2019). Studies on the role FGC family in students' campus experiences by Covarrubias et al. (2015) along with Orbe's (2008) work on the role of culture in FGC identity development provide a foundation for understanding FGC…

College rankings dominate the conversation regarding quality in postsecondary education. However, the criteria used to rank institutions often have nothing to do with the quality of education students receive. A decade ago, Pike (2004) demonstrated that institutional rank had little association with student involvement in educational activities.…

We utilise a dataset of students in their final year of upper secondary education in Ireland to provide a detailed examination of the preferences of prospective students for higher education institutions (HEIs). Our analysis is based upon a discrete choice experiment methodology with willingness to pay estimates derived for specific HEI attributes…

Higher education institutions (HEIs) in Norway have been subjected to several reforms in recent decades. There are transformed relationships between institutions and their environment, and higher educations' third mission is emphasized. To improve our understanding of HEIs' third mission, this paper employs boundary object theory, enabling us to…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of meta-tags by the leading higher educational institutions (HEIs). It explores the various kinds of messages conveyed by HEIs in the meta-description tags of their website homepage. It further examines that whether the messages conveyed by HEIs are in accordance with the prospective…

Reviews of editorial practices and academic studies have shown that journalists often rely on organization websites--and online newsrooms in particular--to inform news stories. Yet, at a time when many academics are called upon as experts by the media, university newsrooms have been ignored. To fill this gap, this study assesses newsrooms of…