Faculty Perceptions of Higher Education Institution Reputation: Understanding the Criteria Behind Academic Decision-Making

Objective: This study examines how faculty in private higher education institutions perceive and prioritize criteria when evaluating institutional reputation. Faculty, as both internal stakeholders and co-creators of reputation, remain underrepresented in reputation research compared to students and external audiences. Theoretical Framework: The study draws on the literature of institutional reputation in higher education, with emphasis on faculty perceptions, ranking systems, and reputation criteria discussed in prior research. This framework supports the analysis of how faculty evaluate and prioritize factors such as staff quality, alumni success, and research productivity. Method: A quantitative, exploratory design employed multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) using the PAPRIKA (Potentially All Pairwise RanKings of all possible Alternatives) method. Eight criteria from peer-reviewed and grey literature guided the analysis: Faculty Quality, Alumni Success, Recognition, Student Quality and Selectivity, Research and Production, Infrastructure and Resources, Financial Stability, and Internationalization. Data were collected through an online survey with 163 faculty respondents from São Paulo's private higher education. Results and Discussion: Findings show that faculty prioritize Faculty Quality and Alumni Success over financial or internationalization metrics, highlighting a gap between faculty perspectives and dimensions emphasized by rankings. Research Implications: Results suggest that institutional strategies should emphasize faculty development and alumni engagement while contextualizing ranking-oriented initiatives. Originality/Value: This is among the first applications of PAPRIKA to faculty perceptions of institutional reputation, providing an empirically grounded hierarchy of criteria and refining reputation theory by showing divergences between internal and external stakeholder priorities.