Building World Class Universities

The Building World Class Universities programme is an eight-course knowledge track that supports institutions with the foundations and strategies they need to begin or continue on their journey to becoming world-class universities.

The evidence-based, step-by-step approach of the Building World Class Universities courses removes ambiguity from university ranking strategy, particularly for young or growing universities. These courses examine the components, actions, and relationships that have led to real universities’ success in their ranking goals.

The Building World Class Universities programme includes the following courses:

1. Foundations of University Ranking
2. Foundations of Bibliometrics
3. Maximising Research
4. Increasing Visibility
5. Crunching Data 
6. Branding for Degree Presentations 
7. Developing a Distinctive Position for Your University 
8. Developing Alumni Relationships 

Enrol in the full programme now to get a 20% discount on all courses above!

Foundations of University Ranking provides an introduction to the purpose and history of university rankings and their methodologies.

Foundations of Bibliometrics equips users with key bibliometrics terminology associated with university research and citations as they relate to university ranking agencies’ methodologies.

Maximising Research examines a long-term strategy for enhancing research and publications with the aim of empowering users to develop their own strategy in order to positively impact their university rankings.

Increasing Visibility outlines a short-term strategy for increasing university visibility by enhancing local and international collaboration.

Crunching Data defines a strategy which can be applied to a university’s ranking strategy immediately in order to support the management and collection of data and data submission to ranking agencies. 

Branding for Degree Presentations explores the key components of a successfully and strategically-written degree programme in order to improve university visibility.

Developing a Distinctive Position for Your University facilitates the identification of university values in order to create a marketing strategy that capitalises on points of differentiation and increases visibility.

Developing Alumni Relationships studies examples of global best practices in order to improve universities’ collection and use of alumni data to personalise communication with alumni and strengthen alumni programmes overall.

Building a world class university requires consolidated effort across departments.

These courses are particularly relevant to:

Research Stakeholders

• University Leadership
• Deans for Research
• The University’s Research Office
• Faculty with Publishing Responsibilities
• Data Analysts

Engagement Stakeholders

• University Leadership
• External Relations Officers
• Public Relations Officers
• Communications Departments
• Alumni Association Staff

All online courses are led by expert instructors and filled with compelling examples, interactive worksheets, and opportunities for reflection.

For this reason, we recommend you use a laptop or tablet if possible.

The course expert for the core courses in the programme is:

César Wazen

César Wazen is the Director of the International Affairs Office at Qatar University. He designed and implemented the ranking strategy that Qatar University has used to dramatically improve their university rankings.

César’s interests in rankings, academic accreditation and student assessment are backed by extensive experience teaching mathematics and statistics as well as in whole-school accreditation. He holds a BSc in mathematics, a teaching diploma and a master’s in educational administration and policy studies, all from the American University of Beirut and currently pursuing doctoral studies in European and International Studies. 

The course experts that lead the remaining courses are:

Cameron Mirza

Cameron is the Chief of Party for Pre-Service Teacher Education in Jordan.

He works with the Government of Jordan and the university sector to increase the quantity and improve the quality of school teachers countrywide through policy reform, data, building capacity, and improving the public perception of teaching in society. 

Previously, Cameron was MENA Director for Nottingham Trent University working with governments to close skills gaps and spent several years reforming the higher education sector of the Kingdom of Bahrain. First, as Head of Strategy at the Ministry of Higher Education, then as Director of Strategy for the University of Bahrain. In the UK, Cameron was responsible for delivering such programs as the Respect Action Plan, the youth action plan, young apprenticeships, family intervention program, review of diversity in the curriculum, and review of child poverty while at the Department for Education and Skills.

Cameron was also an advisor to the Ministry of Higher Education for Egypt, supporting the improvement of over 40 Universities in Partnership with the Egyptian Knowledge Bank. Cameron is a board member of BETT MEA and sits on the Gulf talent advisory board at Oxford.

David Miller in his own words:

In 2011, I joined the University of Exeter as Head of Marketing, and for the next five years I helped drive the Exeter brand up students’ consideration lists to the point where in 2016 when I left, 50% of AAA+ students included Exeter on their UCAS short-list.

One of the most enjoyable elements of my role was working with academics, refreshing low-recruiting programmes and launching entirely new programmes. From the BSc in Medical Sciences to BSc Business in the Cornwall Campus. From Natural Sciences to Liberal Arts. Not to mention bringing a marketing perspective to the entire Masters portfolio.

Most marketing people in universities are good at selling their current portfolio. But often they don’t have the time, or sometimes the skill-set, to help academics refresh their portfolios or develop and launch new programmes. This is why I set up Academic Programme Development. Partly because I love working with academics. Partly because developing differentiated programmes and university positioning is core to student recruitment. And so much cheaper than wasting millions on advertising campaigns.

My USP as an HE marketing man? I bring a private sector skill-set to higher education, with a clear focus on portfolio development and university positioning. Both require years of experience in proposition development. Experience which you simply don’t get if you’ve only ever worked in the public sector. 

I work with a range of other specialist talents, from data analysts to market researchers to university planners. Sometimes within universities, sometimes, without. Together our combined efforts relieve the pressure on academics, de-risk the programme development process and maximise the chances of success.