Times Higher Education announces reforms to its World University Rankings

Times Higher Education today announces a series of important changes to its flagship THE World University Rankings and its suite of global university performance analyses, following a strategic review by THE parent company TES Global.

The methodology of the global rankings will be broadly preserved and the rankings will continue to use the most comprehensive and balanced performance indicators to evaluate universities across all of their core missions, including research, knowledge transfer, international outlook and – uniquely – the teaching environment. But a series of structural changes will ensure that the THErankings continue to lead the field for rigour, responsiveness and transparency and provide an ever richer picture of the global higher education and research landscape.

The reforms will provide the platform for further innovation in university performance metrics, with new tools and analytics to capture a wider range of institutional strengths, in a greater range of contexts, against a broader range of missions.

The key change is that all institutional data collection, previously outsourced to Thomson Reuters, will be expanded and will now be brought in-house, carried out by a new, dedicated team of data analysts at THE. The team, in partnership with universities, intends to build the largest and most comprehensive database of university data in the world.

Data, including key information such as an institution’s resources and staff and student profiles, at both the institutional and subject level, will be collected from many hundreds of institutions across the world. The data will be used to underpin the overall THE World University Rankings, as well as supplementary rankings, including the THE 100 Under 50, the THE Asia University Rankings and the THE BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings. It will also be used to develop new analyses, in response to sector demand and consultation, including new rankings and analytical services. Read the whole article.

This article was originally published on the Times Higher Education website.