Most international university rankings use three criteria evaluation: scientific publications, academic opinion and employment. These are elements that can be measured and compared internationally.

However, quality indicators are difficult to measure and compare between countries professor. Each university system has its own particular way of organizing itself. For this reason, national, rather than international, rankings usually include quality indicators professor.

These considerations raise the question of the weight of students in rankings and, more generally, in establishing the prestige of a university. In my opinion, it is worth recovering the idea that the student is at the center of the university. And I think it can also be said that the student's work has a strong influence on the reputation of the university.

We could summarize the relationship between students and the reputation of the university in ten very synthetic reflections, which emerge from the sessions held at an international congress , held at the University of Navarra, in which experts from 23 countries participated. These considerations do not apply only to our country, but also to other university systems around the world.

1. The reputation of the university depends above all on the quality of teaching, its essential task, even more than on other factors. Attention to rankings should not distract from this reality.

2. Students go to university with a fundamental expectation: to receive a good academic training , to have expert and close professors, to take advantage of the investment of time and effort of the university years.

3. The quality of the professor task can be measured by objective indicators, such as credits passed, years of duration of the programs of study, results of the accreditation professional exams. At the same time, it is useful to identify indicators that reflect the students' experience, i.e. their evaluation with respect to university life and the fulfillment of their expectations. The student's perspective must be known and recognized for what it is worth.

4. For the student's experience to be enriching, in addition to the quality professor, other factors also play a role, such as the possibility of accessing scholarships, the ease of finding adequate housing, the opportunities to develop sports, cultural and solidarity activities.

5. An important part of this student experience is social and environmental responsibility, which is learned theoretically in the classroom and also at internship outside the classroom during the university years. The process of Education higher education includes learning civic engagement. Increasingly, it is an expectation of the students themselves.

6. The need to know the expectations and perceptions of students requires the creation of a 'listening architecture', through different channels, with the financial aid currently provided by technology. In the university, as in all organizations, the professionalism of listening is a challenge.

7. Students can consider themselves co-creators of university life, participants and not mere recipients of its activity. The English term 'engagement' is very appropriate. This involvement manager is source of creativity and innovation at the macro and micro levels of university life.

8. Listening and engagement require adequate communication with students (not only 'to' students), which helps to create an authentic university relationship. Communication that consistently covers all phases of the relationship: before, during and after the classroom.

9. The partnerships of alumni are a consequence of the strength of the relationship that stems from a satisfactory experience of the students. If their expectations have been fulfilled, if the training received is of high quality, they are likely to express their civic commitment by collaborating with universities when they become professionals. In this way a chain of solidarity is created, in which those who have received a lot financial aid to those who need it.

10. Consequently, a university has a good reputation when its students have a good reputation. A university is successful when its students are successful. In this sense, the best of the rankings, the one that reflects the students' experience, may not yet exist.

The logic of reputation, understood as perceived quality, is inclusive and cooperative, while that of rankings can be exclusive and competitive. It can be said that all universities, regardless of their presence in the rankings, are in a position to aspire to enjoy an excellent reputation, to make a valuable contribution to their own environment and to provide a qualified service to their students.