| dc.description.abstract | Global university rankings have gradually become a key feature of policy and geo-political discussions among various stakeholders involved in higher education since their emergence in 2003. Global university rankings have become a key instrument for students in their undergraduate and postgraduate school selection process. They have become a key instrument used by HEIs to identify their strengths and weaknesses, to foster collaborative relations with other institutions either within or outside the country of origin and aids them in benchmarking themselves against the peers. Emerging as a source of consumer information, GURs have grown to influence both the behaviour of various government and HEIs. As a result, it has attracted the attention of many higher education researchers who have explored the various aspects of it; the indicators, impact on students, impact on higher education institutions and the institutional responses towards them. However, most of these research studies on GURs are often in institutions or countries with most higher education institutions appearing in the top 100, 200 and 500 positioning. Owing to this, the main objective of this study was to explore the institutional responses of four public universities in Ghana towards the growing impact of GURs. Based on this general research area, the study adopted the qualitative case study methodology to explore to explore the institutional responses of four public universities in Ghana towards GURs. With the help of the Oliver’s (1991) strategic responses to institutional processes which originated from the institutional and resources dependency theory, the findings of this study revealed that although they were varied perceptions among institutional leaders, their respective universities have been impacted by GURs and are responding according through the adoption of some strategic policies with an aim of improving their rankings. Generally, the findings of the study revealed that the four public universities in Ghana acknowledges the impact of global university rankings. As a result, each of the four universities are appropriately responding in terms of conscious policy measures. | eng |