Quacquarelli Symonds ( QS ) is a higher education analyst and a for-profit services provider headquartered in London with offices in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
8-517: The company was founded by Nunzio Quacquarelli in 1990 to provide information and advice to students looking to study abroad. It then expanded to include a wider range of higher education-focused products and services before partnering with THE in 2004 to create the THE-QS World University Rankings . In 2009, the company acquired GmbH Unisolutions, a supplier of software solutions to support higher education institutions in
16-599: A number of criticisms. Some critics expressed concern about the manner in which the peer review conducted by THE-QS was carried out. In a report, Peter Wills from the University of Auckland, New Zealand wrote of the Times Higher Education -QS World University Rankings: But we note also that this survey establishes its rankings by appealing to university staff, even offering financial enticements to participate (see Appendix II). Staff are likely to feel it
24-523: Is in their greatest interest to rank their own institution more highly than others. This means the results of the survey and any apparent change in ranking are highly questionable, and that a high ranking has no real intrinsic value in any case. We are vehemently opposed to the evaluation of the University according to the outcome of such PR competitions. Ian Diamond, former chief executive of the Economic and Social Research Council and now vice-chancellor of
32-520: The University of Aberdeen and a member of the editorial board, wrote to Times Higher Education in 2007, saying: The use of a citation database must have an impact because such databases do not have as wide a cover of the social sciences (or arts and humanities) as the natural sciences. Hence the low position of the London School of Economics , caused primarily by its citations score, is
40-477: The area of internationalisation, especially with managing participation in Erasmus programmes. On 5 October 2017, QS Quacquarelli Symonds acquired Hobsons Solutions, the international division of Hobsons, Inc. On 3 November 2021, QS acquired the web-based counselling and application platform StudentApply. In 2024, QS acquired the career navigation platform 1Mentor. In 2022, the firm's founder, Nunzio Quacquarelli,
48-668: The methodology for these rankings continues to be used by its developer Quacquarelli Symonds. Since 2010 these rankings are known as the QS World University Rankings when Times Higher Education started publishing another ranking with methodology developed in partnership with Thomson Reuters in 2010, known as the Times Higher Education World University Rankings . The old iterations of the rankings produced collaboratively by THE and QS Quacquarelli Symonds received
56-554: The two organizations parted ways to produce independent university rankings, the QS World University Rankings and THE World University Rankings. Times Higher Education%E2%80%93QS World University Rankings The term Times Higher Education–QS World University Rankings refers to rankings published jointly between 2004 and 2009 by Times Higher Education and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). After QS and Times Higher Education had ended their collaboration,
64-513: Was appointed as the company's president. Jessica Turner serves as the company's chief executive officer, responsible for the firm's operations and strategy. QS World University Rankings is a portfolio of comparative university rankings . Its first edition was published in collaboration with Times Higher Education ( THE ) magazine as Times Higher Education–QS World University Rankings , inaugurated in 2004 to provide an independent source of comparative data about university performance. In 2009,
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