Reputation Is Key to a Successful University’s Development

The Sixth international conference ‘Education and World Cities: New Horizons of University Reputation’ has come to a close at HSE University – St Petersburg. Heads of universities and leading academic associations discussed the importance of reputation and international partnerships in a university's development.

© HSE University – St Petersburg

More than 300 students representing 105 Russian universities and 5 universities of CIS countries took part in the conference ‘Education and World Cities’ held in HSE University – St Petersburg on 22-23 May, 2019.

The world’s leading experts, who participated in the event, agreed that the reputation of modern universities does not only mean its place in the rankings. ‘Today, reputation has become the main tool for recruiting talented students, teachers and researchers. At the same time, there has not been much discussion about university reputation within the context of Russia alone. Instead it is primarily considered in terms of university’s position in international rankings. But the ranking is a linear scale that does not show the true face of a university. With this approach, we risk turning a university’s reputation, brand, or history into single figures, and that is fundamentally wrong. Now the main task for universities seeking to be competitive in the global market of educational services is to develop their identity,’ explains Sergey Kadochnikov, Director of HSE campus in St Petersburg.

This idea was supported by Maria Yudkevich, HSE Vice Rector, who noted that Russian universities have been seeking to clarify their missions and identify what makes them unique. In Yudkevich's view, the qualitative transformation of higher education in recent years has become possible due to the Project 5-100. The programme, aimed at increasing the competitiveness of Russian universities, has significantly increased publication activity, created favoruable conditions for cooperation between universities, research institutes and, most importantly, foreign academic centres.

The need to develop international partnerships was the second pivotal topic of the conference. ‘In the digital world, the learning process is impossible without strategic partnerships between Russian and universities abroad. Therefore, we support the development of cooperation with leading foreign universities and international higher education associations. This allows our students to be aware of the global agenda and trends, learn and experience something new, as well as develop flexibility and mobility, which are essential qualities in an environment where the speed of change in business and life has been constantly increasing,’ points out Mikhail Oseevsky, President of Rostelecom and Chairman of HSE SPb Board of Trustees.

HSE’s partners network includes more than 400 organisations, two thirds of which are located in Europe and North America.

The conference ‘Education and World Cities: New Horizons of University Reputation’ was organised in cooperation with the University of Navarra (Spain) and World 100 Reputation Network, a professional association that is involved in reputation management and strategy.