In many parts of the world, university rankings are now more prevalent and popular than in the entire history of higher education. With growing attention paid to university rankings, the influence of such numbers is ubiquitous on higher education institutions as well as their stakeholders. Universities around the world implement various institutional practices to enhance their ranking status and transform themselves in order to align with ranking firms’ priorities. Although university rankings are re-shaping higher education system globally, individual institutions’ responses to the rankings in different national contexts have not been extensively explored in literature. This context-focused, in-depth knowledge is needed to understand the phenomenon as well as the extensive higher education system.This study examines institutional practices implemented in response to university rankings of three four-year institutions in South Korea. The South Korean case is important in the understanding of the ranking phenomenon for its unprecedented expansion of higher education and enhancement in global university rankings within a few decades. Through a multiple-case study based on qualitative evidence, this study explored how the Korean institutions responded to global and national university rankings in the different areas of institutional practices and how the local, national, and global agencies of higher education interact with the institutions in those practices. Key findings of this study include a better understanding of the challenging environment of Korean higher education for global competitiveness and the institutions’ wide range of efforts to enhance their ranking positions through implementation of various initiatives for organization, curriculum, faculty, research, students, and marketing. Despite the similarities of existing practices, the case institutions interpreted and responded to the rankings in quite different ways depending on their goals, hierarchical positions, resources, and challenges. These differences came from the multifaceted interactions each institution had with various agencies of higher education at the global, national, and local levels. The findings underscored the importance of exploring higher education phenomenon both from the perspective of individual institutions and expansive glonacal higher education systems. This study concluded with the implications and suggestions for future higher education research. The case study protocol and research notes were also documented and provided for researchers.
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