Main Directions for Improving the Online Reputation of Technical Universities

The increased demand for technical education has intensified competition between universities to attract students. Reputation is a critical factor in winning this competition. COVID-19 has accelerated the digitization of all aspects of social life. One of the consequences has been a shift in public attention to the online environment, which has become stakeholders’ main source of information about universities. Currently, the digital space is becoming a platform for building trusting and transparent relationships with different groups of university stakeholders. Therefore, effective reputation management of educational institutions in the online environment is of particular importance. It should be noted that there may be a discrepancy between the reputation of the university in the eyes of its target audiences. Taking this into account, as well as the specificities of online communication, it is logical to use different criteria for different stakeholders when assessing the results of the university’s reputation-building activities. This study shows that the online reputation of technical areas in universities depends primarily on the complex content that can be found on the Internet and the demonstration of the intangible assets/values of both the university as a whole and a particular area, which form the reputational capital. The article presents the results of an analysis of the communication activities of technical universities and identifies trends in the online promotion of educational institutions. The analysis is based on the monitoring of publications using the media database of the Medialogy and the Brand Analitics platforms. The study also included rankings, which are one of the most important sources of reputation information.