European universities can no longer build their reputations on strong research and academic performance alone, rectors say, as success increasingly depends on how institutions define and communicate what they stand for in a competitive global environment.

Speaking at the��ߣߣ��Ƶ��Europe Universities Summit in Milan, Amaya Mendikoetxea, the rector of the Autonomous University of Madrid, said universities have become much more visible and operate in a fragmented environment that is influenced by several stakeholders.

“For a long time, universities didn’t have to think about [reputation] much. If you produced strong research, if you offered rigorous teaching, and built a solid academic community, reputation would just follow,” she said. “But this is no longer the case today because we operate in a system that is much more competitive, visible and fragmented.”

Mendikoetxea stressed that articulating a clear mission and explaining why it matters has become critical. Her university has “solid academic performance and locally that translates into a strong reputation, but internationally, the same performance does not translate into the same recognition”, she said.

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“The issue is not performance, it’s how that performance is connected to a clear narrative and how that’s understood externally…Narrative is how the institution explains itself and how that matters.”

For smaller or mid-sized universities, like the University of Innsbruck in Austria, standing out in a crowded field dominated by larger institutions means focusing on what makes them different, added its rector, Veronika Sexl, who said the 350-year-old institution’s location is what sets it apart.

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“The university is [located] in the Alps and that is one of our key features. We have a big alpine lab and that’s what makes us stand out,” she said. “We’re known for our alpine research and quantum physics.” She added that emphasising the university’s distinctive qualities was essential when competing with larger, more established universities to attract students.

For newer institutions such as Humanitas University in Milan, a medical school��that opened in 2014, it was important to have a comprehensive approach to reputation building, its rector Luigi Terracciano said. “We are a relatively young and small university,” Terracciano explained, adding that focusing on performing well in global rankings plays an important role in attracting international students. “Excellent people produce groundbreaking results, which improves a university’s standing.”

But he said it was important to adopt a multidimensional strategy. “While ranking provides visibility, relying on them can lead to a fixation where institutions chase numbers rather than��[their] mission,” he added. “Universities should avoid risks by anchoring their strategies in unique institutional missions – for example, instead of chasing citations in unrelated fields to boost general rankings, a university may focus strictly on specialised education, like Humanitas does on life sciences,” he said. “This can help universities ensure their long-term value remains high.”

seher.asaf@timeshighereducation.com��