QS World University Rankings
The QS World University Rankings rank about 1,500 universities worldwide, with half the weight on research and discovery and large weights on academic and employer reputation surveys. It is the most widely viewed global table among prospective international students and is often cited by governments and universities in marketing and visa policy.
- Reliability
- Grade B · 9/12
- Publisher
- QS Quacquarelli Symonds
- Ranks
- Universities
- Editions
- 23 since 2004
- Method
- Mixed
- How items get in
- Free, institutions submit data
- Status
- Active
Editions
| Edition | Published | Top of the list | On record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2027 | June 18, 2026 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 25 of 1504 |
| 2026 | June 18, 2025 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 24 |
| 2025 | June 4, 2024 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 20 |
| 2024 Method changed | June 27, 2023 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 17 |
| 2023 | June 8, 2022 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 14 |
| 2022 | June 8, 2021 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 15 |
| 2021 | 2020 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 11 |
| 2020 | June 19, 2019 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 12 of 1000 |
| 2019 | 2018 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 12 |
| 2018 | 2017 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 12 |
| 2016/17 | September 5, 2016 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 10 of 916 |
| 2015/16 Method changed | September 14, 2015 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 10 of 891 |
| 2014/15 | 2014 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 30 |
| 2013/14 | September 2013 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 16 |
| 2012/13 | September 11, 2012 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 10 of 700 |
| 2011 | September 2011 | University of Cambridge | 25 |
| 2010 | September 8, 2010 | University of Cambridge | 20 |
| 2009 | October 8, 2009 | Harvard University | 20 |
| 2008 | October 9, 2008 | Harvard University | 20 |
| 2007 Method changed | November 2007 | Harvard University | 17 of 200 |
| 2006 | October 6, 2006 | Not recorded | At the publisher |
| 2005 Method changed | 2005 | Not recorded | At the publisher |
| 2004 | November 5, 2004 | Harvard University | 7 of 200 |
How the ranking works
The current method groups nine weighted indicators into five lenses: Research and Discovery (Academic Reputation 30%, Citations per Faculty 20%), Employability and Outcomes (Employer Reputation 15%, Employment Outcomes 5%), Global Engagement (International Faculty Ratio 5%, International Research Network 5%, International Student Ratio 5%), Learning Experience (Faculty Student Ratio 10%) and Sustainability (5%). QS reports drawing on more than 151,000 academic and 100,000 employer survey responses and 16.4 million papers from Scopus.
The method has changed several times: an employer survey was added in 2005, z-scores and Scopus citations arrived in 2007, citations were normalized by faculty area in 2015/16, and the 2024 edition cut reputation and faculty-student weights while adding sustainability, employment outcomes and international research network indicators.
Ranked positions: Each item has a position (1, 2, 3), with ties allowed. Institutions submit data to QS and must meet eligibility criteria; there is no fee to be ranked. QS sells consulting, advertising, events and data services to universities, and critics including a 2021 UC Berkeley study have argued this creates a conflict of interest.
How far to trust it
Superscout grades every ranking on six criteria, each scored 0 to 2. QS World University Rankings scores 9 of 12, grade B.
- Transparency 2/2
- Indicators, weights and normalization published on the QS support site.
- Independence 1/2
- Free to be ranked, but QS sells consulting and marketing to ranked universities.
- Evidence 1/2
- Mix of reputation surveys (45%) and bibliometric or submitted data.
- Stability 1/2
- Several method breaks, most recently the 2024 edition.
- Coverage 2/2
- About 1,500 universities ranked across 106 systems in 2027.
- Track record 2/2
- Annual since 2004 (joint with THE through 2009).
History
The ranking began in 2004 as the Times Higher Education Supplement-QS World University Rankings. The partnership ended in 2009, with Times Higher Education citing weaknesses in the method, and QS has published the rankings alone since September 2010. Cambridge led the first two standalone editions; MIT has ranked first every year since 2012/13, 15 straight editions through QS 2027.
QS moved publication from September (through the 2016/17 edition) to June (QS WUR 2020 was released in June 2019) and now labels each edition with the following year. Coverage grew from 200 published institutions in 2004 to about 700 in 2012, 916 in 2016/17, 1,000 in QS 2020 and 1,504 in QS 2027.
How it is received
QS is widely used by students and in government policy, but it draws the most criticism of the major tables for its reliance on reputation surveys. Labor economist David Blanchflower called it "complete rubbish" in 2011, and Bookstein and colleagues (Scientometrics, 2010) found "unacceptably high fluctuation from year to year" (as cited on Wikipedia). Richard Holmes criticized the early THE-QS editions for giving half the score to "subjective and not very well controlled" opinion surveys.
Commercial conflicts are a recurring concern: a 2021 UC Berkeley study associated purchases of QS services with ranking gains, and Wikipedia reports an independent expert group reaching a similar observation in 2023. Peter Wills of the University of Auckland questioned the early surveys' incentives to participate (as cited on Wikipedia).
Strengths
- Broad coverage of about 1,500 universities in more than 100 systems.
- Employer reputation and employment outcomes add a graduate-market view absent from ARWU.
- Indicator weights are fully published.
- MIT's 15-year run at the top gives a stable headline signal.
Weaknesses
- Reputation surveys carry 45% of the weight.
- QS sells services to the universities it ranks.
- Frequent method changes (2005, 2007, 2015/16, 2024) break comparability.
- Relies partly on data submitted by the ranked institutions.
- Survey response rates have been criticized as low.
Open questions
Facts not verified yet. They stay visible so they are not mistaken for settled facts.
- Exact release days of QS WUR 2018, 2019 and 2021 (published mid-2017, 2018 and 2020) and of the 2014/15 edition were not verified.
- Published list sizes for the 2021 to 2026 editions and for 2009 to 2011 and 2013/14 to 2014/15 were not verified and are left null.
- The 2005 and 2006 THE-QS ranked tables could not be retrieved; leaders not verified from a source (widely reported as Harvard).
- Wikipedia's QS table does not always mark ties with '='; ties were inferred where two institutions share a rank.
- The 2004 edition is sometimes described as published in October (Holmes) and sometimes November 5, 2004 (THE archive); THE's date is used.
Superscout describes QS World University Rankings independently from the publisher’s own pages and outside coverage, linked below. The rankings belong to QS Quacquarelli Symonds.
Sources and known limits
Last reviewed .
- QS World University Rankings 2027 results
- World's Best Universities Revealed (QS press release, 2026)
- QS World University Rankings 2027 (TopUniversities)
- QS World University Rankings methodology
- QS World University Rankings (Wikipedia)
- QS World University Rankings 2027: MIT Tops, Imperial Joins Stanford at 2
- The top 20 universities in the QS, THE and Shanghai rankings (Cambridge International)
- Richard Holmes, The THE-QS World University Rankings, 2004 to 2009
- We're No. 2! (Now what?) (UC Berkeley, 2004)
- MIT News, THE-QS rankings 2008
- UCL climbs to 4th in the 2009 THE-QS World University Rankings
- 2007 World University Rankings (TaxProf Blog)