Ranking News: QS World University  Rankings

Like many others, I have just received an invitation to take in the QS academic survey which contributes 40 per cent to their World University Rankings. If I understand it correctly, QS now get the majority of their respondents from the Mardev mailing lists. That means that subscribing to an academic journal is sufficient qualification to rank the research capabilities of universities around the world.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings also have a reputation survey. It is a little more difficult to join this club. To be a respondent it is necessary to have written (or co-written or perhaps "co-written" (these days the concept of authorship is getting quite blurred) an article in an ISI-indexed journal. On balance, the THE survey is likely to more reliable although I think QS could argue that those who read academic journals but do little research are a constituency whose views should be considered.