Reputation Management and International Mobility as Administrative Levers for Global University Ranking: Evidence from Public Universities in Rivers State

Abstract

Beyond the bibliometric indicators of research output and collaboration, global university rankings are also shaped by softer, perception-based levers, namely institutional reputation and international human mobility. This study examined reputation management and international mobility as administrative levers for global university ranking, focusing on strategic branding and the promotion of global student and faculty exchange programmes in public universities in Rivers State. Two objectives guided the study, from which two research questions and two null hypotheses were derived. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The population of the study comprised 194 university management staff and academic staff drawn from the three public universities in Rivers State, namely the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State University and Ignatius Ajuru University of Education. This comprised 93 university administrators and 101 academic staff. Owing to the manageable size of the population, the entire population was studied through a census, without sampling. The instrument for data collection was a self-designed questionnaire titled ‘Administrative Strategies for Improving Visibility to Enhance Global Ranking of Public Universities Questionnaire (ASIVEGRPUQ)’. The instrument was validated by three experts, one in Educational Management and two in Measurement and Evaluation at Rivers State University. The internal consistency of the instrument was determined using Cronbach’s Alpha method, yielding reliability coefficients of 0.86 and 0.87 for the clusters of the instrument relevant to this study. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation, while the hypotheses were tested using z-test statistics at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that implementing strategic branding and promoting global student and faculty exchange programmes each function as effective reputational and mobility-based levers, improving visibility towards enhancing global ranking of public universities in Rivers State to a high extent. The study further found no significant difference between the mean ratings of university administrators and academic staff on either strategy, indicating a convergent perception across both groups. Based on the findings, it was recommended, among others, that university administrators in public universities in Rivers State should develop comprehensive strategic branding plans and establish structured international student and faculty exchange programmes with well-ranked partner institutions to strengthen institutional reputation and global ranking performance.