QS World University Rankings 2025 | Must-know for Students

• Publisher: British Quacquarelli Symonds, UK, United Kingdom
• Latest ranking publication date: 04 June, 2024
• Publication frequency: Annual
• Geographic focus: Global
• Ranking type: University rankings.
• Year of first publication: 2004
• 1503 universities in ranking

At the outset, Quacquarelli Symonds Limited worked in partnership with Times Higher Education to evaluate and publish a yearly ranking of universities, but in 2010 THE opted to publish their own rankings based on their own chosen criteria. QS rates universities based in large part on the surveys which they prepare and send out every year. These surveys go to academic institutions and potential employers of future grads. Their rankings do not take into account student experience or satisfaction with the university. A total of 45% of the ranking criteria is based on the reputation of the university according to the people surveyed. The other half is split up between an evaluation of the research each uni conducts based on citations of the faculty’s published work using data from Elsevier’s Scopus, the student:teacher ratio and the percentage of international students and staff.

Types of Data Collected Directly by the Publisher

QS Academic Survey QS Employer Survey

External databases/data providers used

Elsevier’s Scopus database of research citations

Criteria for including/excluding universities

none mentioned

Criteria Classification

• 55% Academic Performance
• 40% Teaching/Student Experience/Non-academic output
• 5% Other (Sustainability)

• Research publications and citations
• Academic reputation - survey or other
• Student Survey
• Internationalization (% of foreign staff/students/exchange)
• Employer reputation survey or Salary data

Methodology

https://www.topuniversities.com/qs-world-university-rankings/methodology

Rating

4.0 / 5.0

Popularity

Google results for: QS "World University Rankings": 7840000

PROS

• Universities from around the globe
• Includes around 1500 universities
• Employer reputation survey

CONS

• Largely survey based (45%)
• No data regarding student experience
• Student/staff ratios are likely poor indicators of teaching quality

Practical use

The QS World University Ranking is one of the benchmark rankings, despite any criticism thrown its way. Many employers and HE professionals check it yearly, often taking the results into consideration when hiring. The fact is that there are rarely any big surprises among the first universities on the list, the initial slots are almost always filled in with big name schools like Harvard, Oxford, MIT… etc. In terms of information for your average student however, there is still something missing. QS mainly evaluates the “importance” of a university and, to a lesser extent, that of the work that’s being done there, ignoring the student experience entirely. So for practical purposes it makes a good point of departure putting in evidence the reputation of each institution, but the journey to finding the right uni for you is not likely to end here.

Criticism

Apart from criticism from students for the absence of student experience data, many critics of this ranking (and other rankings like it) take issue with the heavy weighting allotted to the surveys QS produces; for the simple fact that they are purely subjective. Questions have also been raised about the selection of the recipients of the surveys and the possibility for institutions to manipulate the results, by agreeing to vote for each other, etc. But too, there is a general mistrust of reputation surveys since they limit the responses of those surveyed to their preconceived ideas regarding long-standing institutions and possible lacunas when it comes to familiarity with younger or more distant universities. QS has also been criticised after reports that universities which contracted QS advertising and consulting services were more likely to move up in the rankings over time.

Considering that QS is one of the three most prestigious university rankings, and one of the very first, criticism is inevitable. What is important to know about QS, and the other big-name rankings is that criticism is taken seriously and often leads to changes in the methodology to address the issues raised by their critics.