QS World University Rankings is an university rankings published annually by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The QS system now comprises the global overall and subject rankings, alongside five independent regional tables (Asia, Latin America, Emerging Europe and Central Asia, the Arab Region, and BRICS). It is the only international ranking to have received International Ranking Expert Group (IREG) approval, and is viewed as one of the most widely read of its kind, along with Academic Ranking of World Universities and Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Among this ranking’s major criticisms, however, are its allocating undue weight to subjective indicators and having highly fluctuating results.
QS designed its rankings in order to assess performance according to what it believes to be key aspects of a universitys mission: teaching, research, nurturing employability, and internationalisation. The rankings therefore employs six criteria, as below:
•Academic peer review – based on an internal global academic survey (40%);
•Faculty / Student ratio – a measurement of teaching commitment (20%);
•Citations per faculty – a measurement of research impact (20%);
•Employer reputation – based on a survey on graduate employers (10%);
•International student ratio – a measurement of the diversity of the student community (5%);
•International staff ratio – a measurement of the diversity of the academic staff (5%).