Following the leader? Network models of “world-class” universities on Twitter

Abstract

Much research on higher education has engaged with the concept of "world-class" universities and the complementary surge of interest in global university rankings. Literature takes a variety of positions on these intertwined phenomena, from vocal support of rankings and "world-class" aspirations to critical analyses of their influence and ideological underpinnings. Despite these differences, there is widespread consensus on the obsession with "world-class" status and the emergence of a new global field of competition (Altbach 2004; King, 2010; Robertson 2012; Tapper and Filippakoub, 2009). This field is disembedded from-but not entirely independent of-national systems of higher education and organized through rankings that create positional competition around research output and reputation (Marginson and van der Wende, 2007). This paper seeks to understand how universities in global rankings relate to one another through social media as a way to better understand reputation and prestige in the field of "world-class" universities. Specifically, it examines the extent to which rankings are reflected in the structure of social media networks and whether those that occupy the top spaces in global rankings tend to associate with one another as a way of reproducing status. While social media networks are less academically focused than those of research collaboration (Moody, 2004) and less formal than institutional consortia (e.g. the World University Network and Universitas 21), they are highly visible, widely accessible and therefore a good measure of how institutions position themselves to maximise prestige within a globally competitive field. Social media are also an increasingly popular and influential means for public engagement and an important component of institutional branding. The paper uses social network analysis and network modelling to examine universities' interactions on Twitter to study how relationships of prestige and positional competition operate in social media networks. Networks are conceptualised and operationalized at the institutional level, with a focus on how networks relate to institutions' reputation and prestige. It begins by discussing literature on "world-class" universities, global university rankings, and network perspectives on global higher education, and then introduces social network analysis, network modelling and sources of data. The analysis presents descriptive network statistics, data visualisations, and results of network models, and the paper concludes by discussing their significance for research on global higher education. Literature Review: "World-Class" and "Network" Universities Recent years have witnessed an obsession with "world-class" universities and global rankings, which can be traced to a steady growth in "world class" terminology since the turn of the century (Ramirez and Tiplic, 2014). Since then, creating "world-class" universities has become an obsession to the extent that "no country feels it can do without one" (Altbach, 2004). The emergence of "world-clas...

Using Twitter™ to drive research impact: A discussion of strategies, opportunities and challenges

“…The academic literature on the use of social networking platforms such as Twitter™ for research purposes is in its infancy, thus is unsurprisingly limited. One recent paper, however, discusses how social media communications can reveal insight into a university's prestige (Shields, 2015). This is because social media enables connections, thus providing a means for public engagement, institutional branding and research outputs.…”

“…It was found that universities may even seek to preserve their elite status via Twitter™. The ranking of an institution increases the likelihood of followers and mentions, and the strongest predictor of a Twitter™ connection is an existing tie or mutual acquaintance (Shields, 2015).…”

“…This can increase the likelihood of acquiring new followers as well. Hashtags are useful because they allow information to be easily organised and therefore easy to locate for the anticipated audience (Power, 2014;Shields, 2015). Popular hashtags may attract more attention, for example #nursing (Mollett et al, 2011).…”

“…This is known as a 'mention' and can encourage others to 'retweet' (resulting in a message being exposed to a number of users), and may also encourage additional 'followers' (Shields, 2015;Mesko, 2013;Moorley & Chinn, 2014b;O'Connor et al, 2013).…”

Universities’ visual image and Internet communication

“…This is most clearly manifested in the development of "new media" -computer technologies facilitating interactive communication on the Internet, corporate portals, blogs, applications for mobile devices, and social networks, which include Facebook, VKontakte, My World, and Twitter. Today universities actively "submerge" into this communicative environment because of a number of reasons, including the need to improve their position in the world university ranking and the need to apply new educational technologies meeting modern sociocultural tendencies [7,8,9].…”