QS summit highlights collaborative role-play to boost university reputations

Session guests participate in a role-play exercise on how to improve an instiution's reputation during a discussion session, titled "Beyond the Student Lens: Reputation Building in Higher Education," at Korea University in Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

QS offered a round-table to discuss how to improve university’s reputation via a role-playing exercise at the QS Higher Ed Summit: Asia Pacific 2025 on Thursday.

During a discussion session titled “Beyond the Student Lens: Reputation Building in Higher Education,” at Korea University in Seoul, guests participated in an exercise on how to improve the reputation of Pacific Global University, an imaginary institution located in Southeast Asia with growing global ambitions.

Each guest played one of the six roles at the university during the session — mass communication & public relations, career services, strategic planning & institutional research, internationalization & global engagement, alumni relations and individual staff.

They introduced interesting solutions to improve the reputation of the imaginary university.

“Strong R&D competitiveness is always the most judgmental factor defining each university’s reputation,” said one guest participating in the session. “So, I would promote the school’s strong faculty capacity and their R&D competitiveness.”

Another guest developed a promotional plan for the school’s more multicultural academic environment, especially since Asian universities are becoming more globalized with international students.

“It is more important than ever for universities to accommodate foreign students, not only for their financial soundness but also for diversity, which is now one of the most important factors in their competitiveness and reputation,” another guest said during the session.

They also discussed barriers that prevent coordination between an institution’s departments, practical steps for each faculty member to overcome them and what kind of internal or external support would make this easier to achieve.

QS Senior Product Manager Narayani Prakash emphasized the collaboration among institution members.

“Reputations are shared responsibility,” she said during the session. “Cross department collaboration for a unified brand image is a must. Faculty are also an ambassador of institutional excellence.”

Before serving in her current post at QS, Prakash held roles as a strategic consultant and product manager at BlueTree, where her responsibilities included managing product marketing and developing automation solutions.

She was also a content writer at Digital X Technologies and copy editor at Thomson Reuters, alongside founding and operating a clothing label.