QS develops and successfully implements methods of comparative data collection and analysis used to highlight institutions’ strengths. Conducting its first industry-leading research in 1990 when it commissioned a global survey of MBA employers, the QS World University Rankings® launched in 2004 and is now the most established research project operated by the company.

What is the QS World University Rankings?

The QS World University Rankings is an annual publication of university rankings which comprises the global overall and subject rankings (which name the world’s top universities for the study of 48 different subjects and five composite faculty areas), alongside our independent regional tables (such as Asia, Latin America, Emerging Europe and Central Asia and the Arab Region). The QS World University Rankings is the most-widely read university rankings in the world.

Under the same grouping, QS also produces the following: Graduate Employability Rankings, Best Student Cities, Higher Education System Strength Rankings, Rankings by Location and the suite of Business School Rankings including Global MBA, EMBA, Distance Online MBA and Business Masters.

The QS rankings currently lead the higher education industry with consistent innovation and growth, progressively affecting the way students and institutions engage. Now in its 17th year, the QS rankings continue to produce authoritative, independent global rankings and evaluation of institutions worldwide.

All our data is based on high-quality research and innovative analytic approaches. Our solid relationships with tens of thousands of higher education institutions and employers enable us to build our rankings using data from over 13 million academic papers, as well as 70,000 academics and 40,000 employers’ responses.

The QS rankings provide methodical evaluations of key areas of higher education institutions, ultimately offering potential students expert advice proven to align students with their chosen path.

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The QS university and MBA rankings attract a great deal of interest and scrutiny each year. The London School of Economics bears little resemblance to Harvard University in terms of funding, scale, location, mission, output – so how is it valid to include them both in the same ranking?

They do both aim to teach students and produce research and it has always been the assertion of QS that this ought to provide a sufficient basis for comparison.