The latest QS World University Rankings have been announced. The official methodology has remained unchanged since last year although there have been some significant fluctuations.
The rankings are now based on nine indicators, three of which, International Research Network, Sustainability, and Employment Outcomes, were introduced in 2023. The others, dating back to the original THES-QS rankings, are Academic Reputation, Employer Reputation, Faculty Student Ratio, Citations per Faculty, International Students, and International Faculty.
First place goes to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by Imperial College London, Stanford, Oxford, and Harvard. The best performing Asian university is the National University of Singapore. The leading Mainland Chinese institutions lag behind, held back by relatively low scores for International Students, International Faculty, International Research Network, and Sustainability.
QS reports that several Asian and Middle Eastern universities have performed well in these rankings, including the University of Hong Kong, the National University of Singapore, and Nanyang Technological University, which remain ahead of the elite Mainland Universities.
QS have also indicated a “subtle evolution” in their academic and employer surveys. They have said that “both indicators require careful stewardship, and in the last two years we have introduced a range of new data validation techniques, driven by machine learning, to ensure that QS remains ahead of disruptive factors. This process never sleeps, but we are confident that our surveys are better protected from manipulation than ever before.”
The result of this enhanced vigilance is that many universities in Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh have suffered significant falls in the Academic Reputation metric.
Source:
TopUniversities