Simona Bizzozero is Communications Director at QS Quacquarelli Symonds, the global higher education intelligence company behind the QS World University Rankings. A member of the QS Rankings Executive Committee and Chair of the QS Reimagine Education Awards and Conference, she brings more than 25 years of experience spanning international higher education, strategic communications and thought leadership.
Throughout her career, Simona has built strong relationships with universities, policymakers and employers across the world, developing a distinctive perspective on the forces reshaping higher education. She is particularly passionate about helping the sector address one of its most pressing challenges: narrative. How universities articulate their value, purpose and relevance in a world evolving faster than many of the institutions designed to serve it.
Before joining QS, Simona worked across publishing, fashion and the cultural sector. This breadth of experience continues to shape her approach to communication, storytelling and the role ideas play in influencing perception, reputation and public trust.
Rankings are often treated as a verdict. For communications professionals, however, they can be something far more valuable: a diagnostic tool. This session invites delegates to move beyond headline positions and explore how rankings methodologies, indicators and perception data can provide a powerful framework for understanding, and strategically shaping, institutional reputation. From employer reputation to academic peer perception, the metrics underpinning global rankings reveal how institutions are seen by the audiences that matter most. Communications teams are uniquely positioned not only to interpret those signals, but to influence them over time.
Drawing on experience at the centre of the QS World University Rankings, Simona Bizzozero will explore how communications professionals can shift from reactive rankings management to proactive reputation strategy. Rather than viewing rankings solely as an annual reporting exercise, institutions can use rankings intelligence to identify perception gaps, sharpen narratives, strengthen visibility and drive more informed institutional conversations.
The session will examine the questions communications teams are increasingly expected to answer: What does our rankings profile reveal about how we are perceived globally? Where is the disconnect between institutional reality and external reputation? Which audiences are shaping that perception? And how can rankings data be used as a strategic lens for action and influence?
Participants will leave with a more practical and strategic understanding of rankings data and on how to use it effectively as one of the tools which contributes to institutional reputation.