If you ask a law or medical school dean at a U.S. university about rankings, prepare to hear delighted predictions for their imminent demise. But you might hear an entirely different view from a liberal arts college president or a university vice chancellor in Europe. Ask marketing and admissions colleagues who are responsible for international recruitment, and you will hear that in parts of the world, rankings and league tables are more important than ever. Institutional research offices dedicate resources to data submission and strategy. Chief Marketing Officers and reputation managers mark their calendars to plan for release dates so they can leverage or mitigate the impact on reputation. Alumni, donors, and trustees love them when they are up, and bring concerns when they are down.



So, what sense do we make of recent headlines? What value do rankings hold for presidents, institutional planners, and reputation managers and how do they influence institutional strategy? How do advancement leaders spot future trends? Which rankings are important to which audiences? In this session, we’ll invite advancement professionals and representatives of the leading global rankings sources to share their perspectives, to sort the signals from the noise and anticipate trends for which leaders should plan.