The BCTS Purpose Charter
Building Better Campus Experiences. Advancing Better Higher Education.
Best Campus to Study™ (BCTS), an initiative of HERA – Higher Education Research & Analytics, USA, is founded on the belief that the quality of higher education must be understood not only through academic achievement, research output or institutional reputation, but also through the experience students live every day on campus.
Aligned with HERA's broader philosophy of using research, evidence, benchmarking and analytics as instruments for meaningful institutional progress, BCTS seeks to establish a credible and globally relevant standard for evaluating, strengthening and recognising exceptional campus experiences. HERA itself positions benchmarking as a means to advance institutional progress rather than an end in itself, while emphasising holistic, inclusive and forward-looking measures of higher-education excellence.
Our Vision
To become a globally trusted standard for student experience and campus excellence.
BCTS envisions a higher-education ecosystem in which every student can make a more informed choice of institution, and every institution can understand, benchmark and continuously strengthen the experience it provides.
Our long-term aspiration is to make campus experience a recognised measure of institutional quality—alongside academic excellence, research, graduate outcomes and reputation.
Our Mission
To measure what students experience, validate what institutions provide, and recognise campuses that demonstrably enable students to learn, belong, grow and thrive.
BCTS accomplishes this through structured student feedback, institutional evidence, independent assessment and comparative benchmarking. Through the Campus Experience Index™, Institutional Assurance Audit™ and Campus Distinction Score™, BCTS transforms student experience into measurable institutional intelligence and meaningful certification.
Our Objectives
01. Elevate the Student
Voice Place students at the centre of campus-quality assessment by systematically understanding their lived academic, social, developmental and support experiences.
02. Validate Institutional Commitment
Examine whether institutional policies, infrastructure, investments, systems and services translate into demonstrable benefits for students.
03. Establish Meaningful Benchmarks
Develop credible benchmarks that allow institutions to understand their performance, identify gaps and compare campus-experience outcomes within relevant contexts.
04. Recognise Institutional Distinction
Award BCTS Certification to institutions that meet defined standards of student experience and institutional assurance-making recognition an outcome of evidence rather than nomination or reputation alone.
05. Enable Continuous Improvement
Provide participating institutions with actionable intelligence that can inform academic planning, student services, campus development, wellbeing initiatives and institutional strategy.
06. Support Better Student Decisions
Build a trusted information ecosystem that enables students and families to understand campuses beyond conventional academic rankings and promotional claims.
07. Advance the Campus Experience Agenda
Encourage higher-education leaders globally to recognise student experience as a strategic measure of institutional effectiveness and long-term reputation.
Our Certification Philosophy
Experience · Assurance · Distinction
These three principles define the BCTS approach.
Experience
Understand the campus through the students who experience it every day.
Assurance
Validate student experience against demonstrable institutional systems, practices and evidence.
Distinction
Recognise institutions that consistently translate institutional commitment into a high-quality campus experience.
Together, these principles form the foundation of the BCTS Certification framework:
Campus Experience Index™ → Institutional Assurance Audit™ → Campus Distinction Score™ → BCTS Certified™
Our Commitment
BCTS is committed to building certification around:
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Student Voice - ensuring student experience remains central to assessment.
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Evidence Integrity - requiring institutional claims to be supported by credible information and documentation.
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Independent Assessment - preserving separation between certification decisions and commercial engagements.
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Methodological Consistency - applying structured frameworks and defined assessment protocols.
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Confidentiality - protecting individual student responses and reporting findings responsibly.
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Transparency - clearly communicating the purpose, process and principles governing certification.
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Continuous Evolution - periodically strengthening the framework as student expectations, technologies and higher-education environments evolve.