Reference universe and competition in higher education: Israeli higher education organizations constituting excellence

Seeing that the culture and governance of competition determines relations among social actors, we turn to the concept of referentiality to investigate the institutional order of competition in higher education. Defining referentiality as the description of a model standard for comparison, this study explores how higher education organizations (HEOs), specifically universities and colleges in Israel, conceive of their positions in a landscape of multiple competitions. Through text analysis of 33 excellence statements made by Israeli HEOs since 2020, the study identifies components of referentiality, namely the substantive dimension of excellence (such as research, innovation, teaching, or sports), the basis for referencing (ranking scales and agencies), and the referent (global or local models). Findings reveal that the multiplicity of components for comparability, as well as the multiple categories of HEOs, create a complex array of referentiality and competition and outline the reference universe of Israeli HEOs. Our study underscores the performative and agentic nature of referentiality in shaping organizational identity and status in the expansive and highly competitive global academic field.