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QS World University Rankings™ Launches 2010 Research
1st March 2010
QS World University Rankings™ Launches 2010 Research
PRESS INFORMATION
For immediate release
London, 1 March 2010, QS World University Rankings™ Launches 2010 Research
* 7th year of rankings – the largest review of international universities ever conducted
* Over 2000 participating universities from more than 130 countries
* Over 200,000 university selections by academics, for excellence in research quality*
* 5000 participating employers
QS Quacquarelli Symonds, the research and information specialists behind the QS World University Rankings™, have launched the new research round for the 2010 rankings, in association with partners including US News & World Report and Scopus, the Elsevier database that supplies bibliometric data.
QS is one of the world’s most prolific providers of information to students and young professionals facing higher education choices at undergraduate, postgraduate and business school level. The QS World University Rankings™ have become extremely popular since they were launched in 2004, with over 20 million visitors viewing the results on TopUniversities.com and partner web sites in 2009.
There are four components to the QS World University Rankings™ research exercise:
* Data gathered directly from over 2000 universities in 130 countries around the world.
* Data on citations and papers for each university produced from Elsevier’s Scopus Database.
* A global survey of academics will collect at least 200,000 data items* per annum, a statistically valid insight into research quality of universities around the world, allowing QS to balance responses by discipline and across regions. The 2010 Academic survey begins on 9th March. For the first time, academics wishing to respond to the survey can register their interest at www.topuniversities.com/academicsurvey. Responding academics are screened and must use an academic email address.
A global survey of an estimated 5000 employers identifies the universities they most wish to recruit from and will collect at least 100,000 data items.* Again this number of respondents enables QS to achieve a balance between regions of the world. The 2010 Employer Survey also begins on March 9th. Employers can complete the survey at www.topuniversities.com/employersurvey. Responding employers are screened and must have an active university recruiting program.
The QS World University Rankings™ have been accepted widely by the academic community and government agencies around the world and subject to rigorous scrutiny. Dr Kevin Downing, Senior Coordinator Academic Planning at City University Hong Kong has built a detailed model tracking the performance of all featured universities in the Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities, the HEEACT Ranking of World Universities and the QS World University Rankings™.
Downing observes: “All rankings are controversial. Nevertheless, the QS World University Rankings™ provide a well accepted measure of the current activity and quality of universities around the world. As such they are proving extremely useful to university leaders seeking to benchmark their performance at an international level – Many senior managers of leading universities around the world now include the QS rankings in their strategic plans, because they provide useful, practical targets.”
QS produces the World University Rankings using citation data from the Scopus database of Elsevier. Niels Weertman, Director of Scopus says “Scopus is a trusted source of bibliometric data , also used by many other organisations including: the OECD, the Australian Research Council, and NISTEP (National Institute of Science and Technology Policy of Japan). Covering the world’s research literature, Scopus is the largest and most comprehensive abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature.”
Nunzio Quacquarelli, Managing Director of QS says “QS welcomes any new initiatives which provide more information to people making key decisions about universities. We look forward to the output of the CHERPA alliance funded by the European Commission, the OECD’s AHELO and the Times Higher exercises. QS will also be announcing new initiatives to provide unprecedented access to our data through new research outputs over the next two years. These initiatives will fuel the debate and provide an objective basis for comparison, providing academics, candidates and the world at large with an ever-increasing set of essential measures with which to make informed decisions.”
Note*: Data items are individual universities selected by academics for their excellence in research or by employers for the employability of each university’s graduates.
- Ends-
Nunzio Quacquarelli is available for interview and may be contacted via:
Simona Bizzozero
Head of PR
QS
t: +44 (0)20 7284 7248
m: +44 (0)7880 620 856
e: simona@qs.com
Universities and employers seeking more information can contact research@qs.com
Notes for editors
About QS
QS Quacquarelli Symonds provides guidance for higher education and career choices, enabling high achievers to progress towards their leadership goals. Through our exclusive events, publications, research and interactive web tools, we link undergraduate, graduate, MBA and executive communities around the world with recruiters and education providers. Our communities include: www.topuniversities.com, www.topgradschool.com, www.topmba.com, www.global-workplace.com. The QS team of over 150 individuals from the four corners of the world include internationally recognized experts in the higher and business education arena.
QS operates globally from offices in London, Paris, Singapore, Stuttgart, Shanghai, Sydney, Washington DC, Boston, and Johannesburg.
About QS World University Rankings™
QS World University Rankings™ Methodology 2009
The detailed review of the research methodology, changes and updates in data gathering and computation in 2009 is available on www.topuniversities.com
QS World University Rankings™ Indicators
The calculations leading to the QS World University Rankings are based on data gathered in the following categories:
* Academic Peer Review
* Employer Review
* International Faculty Ratio
* International Student Ratio
* Student Faculty Ratio
* Citations per Faculty (citation data supplied by Scopus)
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