ABSTRACT
University rankings powerfully shape strategy and policy, yet they say little about what students pay. This paper introduces a simple, replicable benchmark that juxtaposes posted undergraduate fees with rank positions for 112 European universities listed in both ARWU and THE WUR (2018). Using a combined rank indicator and descriptive comparisons, we show a pronounced decoupling: low-fee institutions appear span the rank spectrum, whereas many high-fee providers are not clustered at the top. This pattern challenges the assumption that prestige reliably signals value and offers stakeholders a transparent way to read price alongside position. The contribution is methodological and policy-relevant: a tractable tool that applicants, institutions, and regulators can adopt to improve price transparency and temper ranking-driven governance. Although designed as an exploratory case, the approach scales readily to multiple years, programmes, and realised outcomes, paving the way for evidence-informed evaluations of value for money.