The QS World University Rankings are among the international university rankings. They have been published annually by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) since 2004. The publication takes place online. In total, more than 5000 universities are rated in the QS rankings.

Methodology of the QS World University Rankings

There are a total of six indicators for evaluation in the QS World University Rankings:

• Research reputation: Based on a global survey of experienced scientists (40%)
• Reputation of graduates with employers: Based on a global survey of employers (10%)
• Ratio of numbers between academic staff and students: Should enable conclusions to be drawn about the quality of teaching (20%)

• Citations per academic staff member in the last five years: Used to assess the quality of the research (20%)
• Proportion of international students: Allows conclusions to be drawn about the internationality of the university (5%)
• Proportion of international academic staff: also allows statements about the internationality of the university (5%)

On the basis of these six indicators, a ranking is determined for the universities, which evaluates them as an overall institution. It is possible to display sub-rankings sorted according to individual indicators.

In addition, the result of the QS World University Rankings can be broken down by region. You can do a rough sorting according to world regions or a country-specific view. The latter is particularly useful for those who are planning a semester abroad or a complete bachelor’s or master’s degree or a doctorate abroad and have already decided on a country.

Extract from the current QS World University Ranking (2021)

The top 10

• 1st place: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (USA)
• 2nd place: Stanford University (USA)
• 3rd place: Harvard University (USA)
• 4th place: California Institute of Technology (Caltech) (USA)
• 5th place: University of Oxford (Great Britain)
• 6th place: ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Switzerland)
• 7th place: University of Cambridge (Great Britain)
• Rank 8: Imperial College London (Great Britain)
• 9th place: University of Chicago (USA)
• Rank 10: University College London (Great Britain)

Our partner universities in the top 100

• 30th place: University of California Berkeley (USA)
• Rank 34: Fudan University (China)
• Rank 36: University of California Los Angeles (USA)
• Rank 41: University of Melbourne (Australia)
• Rank 44: UNSW Sydney (Australia)
• Rank 54: University of California San Diego (USA)
• 58th place: University of Bristol (Great Britain)
• 65th place: University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA)
• Rank 81: University of Auckland (New Zealand)
• Rank 87: University of Birmingham (Great Britain)
• 92nd place: University of Western Australia (Australia)

Further partner universities in places 101 to 250

• 110th place: Boston University (USA)
• 112th place: University of California Davis (USA)
• 133rd place: University of Technology Sydney (Australia)
• 152nd place =: Newcastle University (Great Britain)
• 152nd place =: University of California Santa Barbara (USA)
• 177th place: University of Minnesota (USA)
• 180th place: Universidad de Chile (Chile)
• 184th place: University of Otago (New Zealand)
• Rank 197: University of Newcastle (Australia)
• 210th place: University of California Irvine (USA)
• 213th place: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain)
• 223rd place =: RMIT University (Australia)
• Place 223 =: Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand)

Evaluation of the QS World University Rankings

At 50%, the results of the annual surveys carried out by QS make up a considerable part of the overall evaluation of the universities in the QS ranking. The judgment of students who are studying at the universities concerned, flows but in the QS World University Rankings not included in the rating: Instead be questioned established scientists for their opinion.

40% of the overall rating in the QS ranking relates to research, with an additional 20% for the citation frequency, this aspect is very important, as in other university rankings.

Conclusions about the actual study situation on site are difficult with the QS World University Rankings. The supervision situation is indicated by the indicator of the numerical ratio between employees and students, but its meaningfulness is limited: In the case of employees, no distinction is made between researchers and teachers, so the actual supervision key can differ significantly from the figures given. In addition, the number of employees alone does not provide any information about their competence as a teacher.

Further QS rankings

In addition to the general QS World University Rankings, QS publishes several other rankings. This includes, for example, a ranking list that lists the 400 best universities for five major subject areas, the so-called QS World University Rankings by Faculty. The QS World University Rankings by Subject form a list of the 200 best universities for 36 subjects. The QS Top 50 Under 50 lists the best 50 universities from the general QS ranking that have existed for less than 50 years.