QS Lateweek Brief #46 - Starting from scratch
Welcome! Earlier this year, one of the cover stories for QS Insights Magazine discussed the importance of reputation. While we looked at the different ways universities can have a good reputation, such as employment outcomes or research output, a dimension we didn’t dive into was how to build reputation if an institution is new.
In this edition of the Midweek Brief, we delve into how reputation is created (or destroyed) when a university is young. As the world of work evolves in new and novel directions, we also ask if the degree will ever be able to keep up with career paths.
Or, explore the full mag here.
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Anton John Crace
Editor-in-Chief
QS Quacquarelli Symonds
Starting from scratch
By Rohan Mehra
If you ask someone on the street to name a university and they attended one, they’ll probably respond with their alma mater. Otherwise, it’s likely they’ll name somewhere famous that’s consistently high in the rankings, you know the ones.
It will vary from place to place, but generally, long established and highly visible universities tend to garner more recognition than those from other regions, especially when a university is new on the scene. This raises the question; how does a rising university gain a reputation? After all, reputation is critical in the higher education sector.
Universities vary in their attempts to build reputation, depending on things like geographic considerations, academic position, aspirations and other goals and strategies they pursue. It’s common for such institutions to emphasise what makes them unique, or especially capable in some particular way. And across the board, those emerging universities that demonstrate success in building a reputation in their early years, tend to be those with a strong focus on communication. Where the promotion of their goals and accomplishments are built right into the university’s strategic policies themselves, rather than left as an afterthought.
Amina Lahbabi is Head of Corporate Communications at the University Mohammed VI Polytechnic (UM6P) in Morocco, the highest-ranking university in North Africa, which opened its doors to students in 2017. UM6P aims to respond to the needs of African economies by leveraging international connections amongst other things.
“UM6P has expanded its presence internationally through campuses in France and Canada, with future openings planned in Côte d'Ivoire and the United States,” says
Lahbabi. “Through these, we raise our international reputation by building bridges between Africa and the rest of the world, in particular by connecting with the international diaspora attached to Morocco. These citizens of the world are our ambassadors, helping us to spread the word about the best that Africa has to offer.”
Having satellite campuses and strong ties with alumni and other parties of interest are tried and tested strategies common to many universities. So UM6P are also keen to highlight what makes them stand out.
“A more unconventional aspect of UM6P is our learning-by-doing educational philosophy that makes concrete practice a prerequisite for students’ completion of modules,” Lahbabi says. “For this, we provide a number of living laboratories which replicate real life conditions necessary for students’ studies to accurately reflect reality.
“We also actively encourage peer-to-peer learning. For example, our ‘1337’ coding school has no professors, no classes and no academic conditions for admission.”
Such initiatives aim to attract the kind of students and researchers who seek a more holistic academic experience beyond just labs and exams. A major reason for building a good reputation to begin with is to attract such people, innovators, entrepreneurs and so on.
One advantage some newly established universities have is a greater agility when making decisions and, more often than not, a bolder attitude, allowing for the pursuit of lucrative opportunities older universities might hesitate over. Nazarbayev University (NU) in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana adopts its own ways to reach what it considers the best of the global academic talent pool.
“It is the first university in Kazakhstan to operate on principles of autonomy and academic freedom,” says Gaukhar Abeuova, Head of PR at NU. “The country's leadership recognises the importance of world-class research-based academically independent institutions for national and regional prosperity and for gaining respect on the world stage. But it is difficult for a young university to compete with universities with hundred-year histories, which have been developing their brand reputation for centuries.”
Since its inception in 2010, NU has established strategic partnerships with top universities and research institutions around the world, including the National University of Singapore, the University of Cambridge, the University of Pennsylvania, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and many others. They find such collaborations nurture a network of top talent, essential to building capability and also to lodge the name firmly in the minds of key stakeholders.
“NU faculty and researchers have published 9,104 scientific publications indexed by Scopus since 2011. And 35 out of 51 Kazakhstani scientists in the top 2 percent of researchers according to Stanford University represent our university. Our job in PR is to tell audiences about these successes, thereby building the reputation of the university,” says Abeuova.
“Given our audience, one challenge for us is that we produce our content in three languages - English, Kazakh and Russian. But we also have to contend with stereotypes that European education is somehow superior. So, the PR office runs activities such as meetings, memorandums, campus tours, conferences, and training with strategic partners, all of which help dispel these myths and clichés.”
Another young institution where PR is a key means to building reputation is the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in Japan. Established in 2011, OIST was first envisioned in 2001 by Koji Omi, then Japan’s Minister of State, as a way to revitalise Okinawa through science, technology, and locally focused sustainable development.
“Our main challenges in increasing international recognition are our relatively short history, our modest size, and growing an alumni network,” says Director of Communications, Natsuki Matsumoto.
“We prioritize steady enhancement of our research, education, innovation, and outreach. Effectively communicating these achievements internationally, nationally, and locally, is key to building a strong reputation. For example, in 2022, OIST Adjunct Professor Svante Pääbo was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He chose to establish a lab here due to OIST’s interdisciplinary environment, and this idea has proven highly attractive to potential recruits.”
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Rohan is a STEAM communicator based in Tokyo. He works with universities to improve the depth, breadth, quality, and quantity of their public facing communications output. His main focus is on writing, producing short films, and lecturing post-graduates about research communication. Typical of STEAM communicators, he’s worked in a broad range of roles including as a TV producer, animator, researcher, editor, museum curator, public speaker, and journalist. Alongside these things he’s also taught continuously since the mid 2000’s, running workshops for adults, children, and under-represented groups on film production, animation, and more.
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Can degrees keep up with career paths?
By Nick Harland
It’s September 2027, and the first cohort of a brand new Master’s programme are settling in. Over the next year or so, they’ll be learning all about what the World Economic Forum has termed one of the jobs of the future: prompt engineering. In layman’s terms, prompt engineering is all about inputting the right prompts into generative AI tools to get the best outputs. In 2024, that seems like a pretty valuable skill to have.
The issue is that in 2027 - when this mythical degree begins - we don’t know whether prompt engineering will still be so in-demand. As Oguz Acar has argued in Harvard Business Review, the AI tools themselves could soon make prompt engineering obsolete: “Future generations of AI systems will get more intuitive and adept at understanding natural language, reducing the need for meticulously engineered prompts.”
It’s indicative of the challenge facing schools. With an ever-growing number of career paths out there, how can they make sure their degrees are evolving to keep up? And - perhaps more importantly - do they need to keep up?
Universities are not just having to grapple with an increasing number of career paths. They’re also faced with more competition than ever before: firstly from other institutions, but from non-traditional sources too (think online microcredentials, corporation-led training programmes and the re-emerging appreciation of on-the-job experience). Jamie Krenn, an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University in the US, believes the traditional degree must adapt to ward off those threats.
“Degrees risk losing their significance if institutions don’t evolve or add to their current menu of majors,” she argues. “If universities don’t adapt, the role of formal education will diminish as students opt for direct, hands-on experiences or heavy skill-based courses.”
Mathew Georghiou is the founder of MediaSpark, who provide gamified educational solutions to companies. He believes people are turning away from traditional degrees in favour of more flexible options. “More people are questioning the value of a university education that is slow, costly, and has a high dropout rate,” he says. “Universities are already struggling to compete now that students are moving more to online courses and can enrol with any school in the world.”
The challenge facing universities is also one of perception. If students are seeing reams of new jobs out there that universities aren’t catering for, they could be seen as out of touch. Universities have a certain responsibility to the cities and communities that they represent. If they can’t act as a pathway to these new and emerging careers, what exactly is their role in society?
It leaves schools at a crossroads. Creating new degrees is a time-consuming process - Stéphane Bouchonnet of France’s Ecole Polytechnique Paris estimates it takes at least three years from inception to launch. That means if a student wanted to start a Master’s in prompt engineering this year, work on creating the programme would have had to pre-date the launch of ChatGPT. Presumably the creators of that Master’s would also hold an MA in Crystal Ball Studies.
There are alternatives to creating fully-fledged degrees, of course. Some universities are offering new modules within existing degrees, often taught by external lecturers from the private sector. Others are placing a greater focus on continuing, or executive, education: shorter, industry-focused programmes aimed at current professionals. In both cases, the time from inception to launch could be less than 12 months - a much more realistic timeframe to respond to changes in the job market.
But perhaps we’re missing the point here. "I'd make the argument that degrees shouldn't keep up with career paths," says Carli Fink, a Certified Career Development Practitioner. "The data demonstrates that most people's careers don't follow a linear career path. If we think more of careers in this non-linear way, then I believe degrees prepare people for careers very effectively."
As Fink argues, the idea of a job for life looks increasingly like a relic from the past. Research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the US found that baby boomers held an average of 11 jobs by the age of 40. Millennials not only expect to surpass that figure by their early 30s, but are also predicted to switch career paths multiple times. A student may be looking for a job in prompt engineering today, but that doesn’t mean they’ll stick with it for the rest of their career. And when it comes to making a career change, a specialised degree won’t necessarily help them do it.
"When you have a shorter programme it prepares you to do the one really specific job you're training to do,” says Fink, “but it doesn't prepare you as much for the broader context that you could operate in. It means it's harder to make those non-linear transitions."
To prepare graduates for this new world of short-stay, transitory employment, more specialised degrees may not be the answer. Instead, perhaps we need to change our perspective about the modern day role of universities. It can be easy to think of them as a kind of student production line; one which churns out workforce-ready graduates year after year. In truth, that has never been and never should be the role of universities.
“We can't endlessly expand the number of programmes,” says Stéphane Bouchonnet, Head of the Master of Science and Technology programmes at Ecole Polytechnique Paris. "The DNA of the university is firstly to provide general, universal knowledge to students. It’s essential that the university does not become limited to a collection of purely vocational pathways.”
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Nick is a freelance copywriter, writer and founder of Big Bang Copy. As a freelancer, he has written content for Specsavers, Numan, Ricoh, Hearst and many more. He specialises in education, healthcare and music, but has written about everything from financial services to luxury travel. In 2021, he founded the copywriting agency Big Bang Copy. He works with a small network of freelancers on bigger copywriting projects such as website rewrites or marketing campaigns.