"The rankings are only the tip of the iceberg of what happens in educational centers; we must strive to make everything we do known, so that quality and reputation are visible". This was stated today by Ben Sowter, a representative of the QS ranking, during the second workshop of the congress international university reputation which takes place at the University of Navarra. The meeting is attended by more than 300 people, representing 92 institutions and 48 speakers, all from 18 countries.

The expert participated in a roundtable entitled "Critical analysis of the methodologies of international university rankings", moderated by Jan Sadlak, president of the Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence (IREG), with the participation of representatives of some of the most prominent international rankings, such as Simon Chan (Times Higher Education), Gero Federkeil (U-Multirank), Yan Wu (Shanghai Jiao Tong) and Isidro Aguillo (Webometrics).

Jan Sadlak opened discussion by pointing out that reputation is the most controversial indicator of the rankings: "It is very difficult to compress something intangible into a figure". He also explained some of the problems, and at the same time challenges, they present: "Most of them are based on elite universities essentially focused on research; they tend to neglect the arts, Humanities and social sciences; there is a lack of transparency in the management of the data; they rely heavily on reputation surveys; and there is an excessive reliance on publication in English".

Rankings help improve reputation

Simon Chan explained the scope and methodology of the Times Higher Education, which lists the top 400 universities in the world according to 15 indicators, and pointed out that this ranking "makes a comparison taking into account not only the success of universities but also funding and how they attract the best academic staff and student body". In his opinion, "today there is no doubt that the rankings will continue to help improve the reputation of universities".

According to Gero Federkeil, "U-Multirank is superior to other rankings because its methodology is multidimensional, with 30 indicators and 5 dimensions". "The goal is to represent the diversity of universities, not only those focusing on the world-class research , which represent only 3-5%. To make visible other issues such as teaching, knowledge transfer, national level involvement, etc."

Next, Yan Wu explained the Shanghai ranking that lists the top 1200 world-class universities that focus on research. "We use a stable methodology. We focus on objective factors and our ranking is the first ranking of global universities with multi-indicators." "We are going to keep this methodology consistent so that it can continue to be used as a benchmark. However, we will include some improvements such as more rankings by subject, more scientific awards, book publications and internationally renowned alumni , among others."

Finally, Isidro Aguillo explained that Webometrics covers 24,000 universities and higher Education institutions worldwide. "Its goal is to promote open access, for example through transparency in governance." "Rankings should not be Username manuals or reflect a single model. The truth is that they have had very little influence on the university community. The only impact they have is on university mergers," criticized the expert.

Reputation reveals whether the social function is fulfilled

"Reputation is something deserved, a consequence of good work (quality) maintained over time, which is visible and perceived, and generates authority and security," said today Pilar Lostao, Vice President of International Office of the University of Navarra, who gave a talk at lecture on "Processes for the strategic management of quality".

He explained that the strategic management of reputation could be divided into three phases: to know, to decide and to innovate. "If the function of the university is to train highly qualified and responsible citizens, who actively participate in society, and promote, generate and disseminate knowledge, the university has to be transformative," he said. The university has a clear social function, he added, "and reputation reveals whether this social function is fulfilled. Therefore, the role of those who govern the university is to manage reputation."

The congress has the support of institutions such as CRUE, Universia, the European Foundation Society and Education, Corporate Excellence, CASE, the British Council, World 100 Reputation Network and DIRCOM. The preparatory discussion paper or position paper was written by position by sociologists Víctor Pérez-Díaz and Juan Carlos Rodríguez, and Full Professor Pérez-Díaz received this year's award National Sociology and Political Science Award.