THE INFLUENCE OF UNIVERSITY RANKINGS ON UNIVERSITY REPUTATION THROUGH RANKINGS' FUNCTIONS AND STAKEHOLDERS' BELIEFS TOWARDS A UNIVERSITY

The attention to university rankings continues to grow through the past decade, thus there is a need for higher education institutions to understand the mechanisms of influence of university rankings on university reputation. The aim of the study is to reveal the relationship between university rankings and university reputation through differentiative, reminding, informative and persuasive functions of university rankings and beliefs towards a university, as well as to disclose the main areas of influence of university rankings on university reputation. The study is based on the in-depth interviews with various representatives and stakeholders of higher education sector in Lithuania. The study identified the areas through which university rankings influence university reputation. Using models of beliefs towards a university, revealed in previous studies of university reputation, we identified beliefs towards a university associated with differentiative, reminding, informative and persuasive functions of university rankings. The analysis revealed that the majority of beliefs towards a university are related to the differentiative function of university rankings. Furthermore, the analysis showed that recruiting high quality teaching staff, scientific achievements and strong international partnerships are the main areas of influence of university rankings on university reputation.