Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( Times Higher - QS World University Rankings Methodology & Malaysia’s Performance Ben Sowter Head of Research QS Bangkok 7 April

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Establish QS background & credentials  Explain research methodology  New developments  Understand limitations of rankings  Provide insight into performance enhancement specific to improved ranking  Collect feedback and input Objectives 2

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( Session Flow 3

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( QS A brief introduction 4

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Nunzio Quacquarelli  MBA Wharton  MBA Career Guide  Approximately 100 staff in 2008  Asia Office in Singapore  Asia Research Unit Founded 1989/1990 5

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( …to enable motivated people around the world to fulfill their potential, by fostering international mobility, educational achievement and career development Our Channels  primary research  leading-edge editorial & publications  developmental events  web solutions QS Mission…

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (

 Over 1,180,000 visits in 2007  Over 6,000 visits per day in 2008  Increasingly strong prominence in Google & Yahoo searches  Ranked 53,626 in Alexa  Home of the THE – QS World University Rankings  Institution Profiles  Detailed study abroad information 8

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  New revised and updated edition available now  Contains much information not available on web Top Universities Guide

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( Other QS Initiatives  QS World Grad School Tour  QS Top Grad School Guide  QS World MBA Tour  QS Top MBA Career Guide  QS APPLE – Korea July 2008  QS Top Apply  QS Education Trust  QS Intelligence Unit 10

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( QS Offices & Events 11

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( THE CONTEXT THE – QS World University Rankings

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Interest in ranking things and people  Hospitals  Schools  Local authorities  Rich lists; Britain, world, Asian British, footballers  Universities: The Times / US News etc… Why rank universities? 13

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Higher education becoming more global  Knowledge the key driver of international competitiveness  Increasing desire for comparative information  Unique positions of THE and QS as international and independent experts in higher education  Raises awareness of all 500+ universities involved in the project Why World Rankings? 14

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Worldwide, the demand for international education is forecast to increase rapidly  In 2003, an estimated 3.1 million students studied internationally  There are likely to be in excess of 5.8 million international students in 2010  Two-thirds of this global demand will be Asians  US domination of international student recruitment has begun to falter – tight Visas, increased competition (IIE, NAFSA, CCE)  Bologna Accord will create an ‘explosion in English- language based postgraduate courses in Europe’ International Study Trends 15

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( Student Mobility on the Rise 16

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Government funding of tertiary education being cut (per capita) in most countries around the world (IFC)  Many governments targeting international students as a source of tertiary sector funding  Australia has estimated that international students are more important to their economy than manufacturing & mining  The UK Government estimates that 270,000 students contribute $3 billion in fees & a further $3 billion in other spending International Study Trends 17

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  By 2010 The European Commissions Bologna Accord will make room for over 500,000 first degree graduates to study in other EU nations for a Masters degree  By 2016 In the USA, recent Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad legislation aims to encourage 1 million students to study overseas  By 2020 Over 3 million Asians are expected to study outside their home country (Source: IDP – British Council) International Study Trends 18

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( “ ” World University Rankings can help differentiate the active, from the dormant…volcanoes! Professor Shih, President National University of Singapore 19

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( AVAILABLE GLOBAL RANKINGS THE – QS World University Rankings

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Operated by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China  Focuses principally on research output  Nobel Prizes & Fields Medals  Citations  HiCis  Strongly correlated with educational reputation  Historical dependency  Available on Academic Ranking of World Universities 21

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( CriteriaIndicatorWeight Quality of Education Alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals 10% Quality of Faculty Staff of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals 20% Highly cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories 20% Research Output Articles published in Nature and Science* 20% Articles in Science Citation Index-expanded, Social Science Citation Index 20% Size of Institution Academic performance with respect to the size of an institution 10% Shanghai Jiao Tong Criteria 22

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( Webometrics Ranking of World Universities  Focuses on web profile  Research productivity using Google Scholar  Search Engine performance  Site popularity  Good practices in web management  Fully automated  Tracks in the realm of 14,000 institutions  Prone to anomaly  A university domain change can be disastrous  Available on

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( IndicatorWeight Size Number of pages recovered from four engines: Google, Yahoo, Live Search and Exalead. 20% Rich Files After evaluation of relevance to academic and publication activities and considering the volume of the different file formats, the following were selected: Adobe Acrobat (.pdf), Adobe PostScript (.ps), Microsoft Word (.doc) and Microsoft Powerpoint (.ppt). These data were extracted using Google, Yahoo Search, Live Search and Exalead. 15% Scholar Google Scholar provides the number of papers and citations for each academic domain. These results from the Scholar database represent papers, reports and other academic items. 15% Visibility The total number of unique external links received (inlinks) by a site can be only confidently obtained from Yahoo Search, Live Search and Exalead. 50% Webometrics Criteria 24

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( World University Rankings 25

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( THE - QS World University Rankings  Began in 2004  Collaboration between Times Higher Education (THE) & QS  THE running since 1971  THE is a weekly newspaper distributed to academics in the UK and internationally  Formerly associated with The Times  Published annually in the fall

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( THE METHODOLOGY THE – QS World University Rankings

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Four key themes, as basis for comparison:  Research Quality  Graduate Employability  International Outlook  Teaching Quality Our Approach 28

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( CriteriaIndicatorBrief DescriptionWeight* Research Quality Peer Review Composite score drawn from peer review (which is divided into five subject areas). 3,703 responses. 40% Citations per Faculty Score based on research performance factored against the size of the research body 20% Graduate Employability Recruiter Review Score based on responses to recruiter survey. 738 responses 10% International Outlook International Faculty Score based on proportion of international faculty 5% International Students Score based on proportion of international students 5% Teaching Quality Student Faculty Score based on student/faculty ratio 20% Ranking Criteria & Weights *All decisions regarding the allocation of weightings are the responsibility of the Times Higher Education Supplement 29

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Began in 2004 with list of the top 500 world institutions by research impact  Excludes single-faculty institutions  Excludes postgraduate-only institutions  Added on recommendation from certain countries where English publication culture is not strong (e.g. Germany)  Each year list is re-evaluated  Omitted institutions are welcome to make a case for inclusion with supporting evidence for their inclusion relative to an included institution  566 universities considered in 2007 Selection of Initial List 30

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( “ ” Peer review is an effective way to evaluate universities. It takes smart people to recognise smart people Sir Richard Sykes Rector, Imperial College 31

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Peer review is the centrepiece of this ranking  5,101 respondents  International spread  Weighted Results  Subject spread  Arts & Humanities  Engineering & IT  Life Sciences & Biomedicine  Natural Sciences  Social Sciences  Overall score built up from each faculty area  Active academics  3 year “latest response” Peer Review of Research Output 32

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  3 year latest response  Invitation to previous respondents  World Scientific Database (180,000)  Singapore Headquarters   Mardev Database (12,000+)  Part of Reed Elsevier  UK Headquarters   Academic Sign-up facility  Peer Review – Selection of Peers 33

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Harvard second to Berkeley  Oxford and Cambridge  Well-liked universities all over the world  Little evidence of patriotism bias  UK and North America dominate the top 20 Observations: Peer Review 34

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( The Recruiter Review 35

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Another group who have knowledge of university quality  Key relevance to “graduate employability” criteria  Introduced for 2005 rankings  Sourced from QS database and media and university referrals (over 120 lists received for 2007)  Improved response for 2006 & 2007  Continuing development focus for 2008 Recruiter Review 36

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  UK  Strong but less so than in previous years  Some institutions with particular strengths do well  Bocconi, HEC Observations: Recruiter Review 37

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( Quantitative Measures 38

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Research Quality  citations/faculty  Teaching Quality  faculty student ratio  International Outlook  % international faculty and students  Graduate Employability  ?? Quantitative Measures 39

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  All personnel metrics based on FTE  If no FTE data is available an average is calculated based on national or regional norms  FTE numbers are a more accurate measure of an institution’s commitment to teaching and research Full Time Equivalent (FTE) 40

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Winner – Caltech  US, French, Swiss, Netherlands etc institutions all well placed  Both Asian and European amongst the well- placed  Weak correlation (0.21) with research – but not zero  FTE numbers have had a profound effect on institutions with an atypical approach to part-time or distance learning Observations: Staff/Student 41

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  US shows up badly  HKUST top in staff  London School of Economics top in students  Caltech among few US with international staff Observations: International 42

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( Citations per Faculty Score  Classic measure of research quality  Citations per staff member (not per paper)  5 year score (changed from 10 in 2006 to increase “topicality”)  Source: Scopus

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Medical faculty is a big plus  Or major biomedical income  CalTech the winner, then Stanford & MIT  Big country effect Observation: Citations 44

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Method used in various domestic rankings such as The Times (UK)  Stabilise data year on year  More accurate application of weightings throughout the sample  Smoothes any anomalies that remain  Essentially smoothes the curve for each individual indicator Z-Score Aggregation 45

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( The Effect of Z-Score Application on Rankings Indicators 46

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( Indicator Correlations Peer Review 0.59 Recruiter ReviewStrong Peer Review 0.28 International FacultyWeak Peer Review 0.35 International StudentsModerate Peer Review 0.32 Student FacultyModerate Peer Review 0.45 Faculty CitationsModerate Recruiter Review 0.33 International FacultyModerate Recruiter Review 0.37 International StudentsModerate Recruiter Review 0.27 Student FacultyWeak Recruiter Review 0.12 Faculty CitationsWeak International Faculty 0.66 International StudentsStrong International Faculty 0.15 Student FacultyWeak International Faculty 0.15 Faculty CitationsWeak International Students 0.23 Student FacultyWeak International Students 0.19 Faculty CitationsWeak Student Faculty 0.21 Faculty CitationsWeak 47

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( 1.Online System  More thorough and complete data all the way down the list  Less need for averages 2.Peer Review  Countries with disproportionately high response but a small number of institutions lose unnatural advantage 3.FTE Data  Universities with particularly high or low numbers for part-time will be influenced 4.Scopus  Less pronounced bias towards US and English speaking world 5.Z-Score aggregation  Less advantage for the best institutions in lower weighted indicators  Increased stability year on year Effects of 2007 developments… 48

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  The ranking has limitations. Lack of data on:  Teaching quality  Student satisfaction  Investment in infrastructure  The ranking relies on the best comparable data available World University Rankings - Issues? 49

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( THE RESULTS THE – QS World University Rankings

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( Comparing Results THE – QS 1Harvard 2=Cambridge 2=Yale 2=Oxford 5Imperial 6Princeton 7=Caltech 7=Chicago 8UCL 10MIT SHANGHAI 1.Harvard 2.Stanford 3.Berkeley 4.Cambridge 5.MIT 6.Caltech 7.Columbia 8.Princeton 9.Chicago 10.Oxford WEBOMETRICS 1.MIT 2.Stanford 3.Harvard 4.Penn State 5.Berkeley 6.Michigan 7.Wisconsin 8.Minnesota 9.Illinois 10.Cornell

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Harvard  The US – 57 in top 200  Harvard’s lead the smallest yet  Oxford and Cambridge also well placed  But that’s only part of the story Key Findings 52

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  The top 200 includes universities in 28 states  US, UK, Canada, Australia, Netherlands  Korea, China, Japan, Singapore  Thailand, Malaysia  Continental Europe  Developing world small but improving (1 in 2004, 2 in 2005, only UNAM in 2006, 3 in 2007) Key Findings 53

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( Top 20Top 50Top 100 Region/Country N. America 14 (11)(12)(11) 23 (25)(23) 43 (36)(35)(38) Europe 4 (5) 12 (12)(13) 35 (41)(37) Asia/Australia 3 (4)(3)(4) 15 (14) 22 (23)(28)(25) USA 13 (11)(12)(11) 20 (22)(20) 37 (33)(31)(35) UK 4 (4) 8 (8) 19 (15)(13)(14) Australia 1 (1) 6 (6) 8 (7)(12)(11) Where are the top universities? 54

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( Harvard 2Cambridge MITBerkeley 3YaleOxfordCambridgeMIT 4OxfordMITOxfordCaltech 5ImperialYaleStanfordOxford 6PrincetonStanfordBerkeleyCambridge 7ChicagoCaltechYaleStanford 8CaltechBerkeleyCaltechYale 9UCLImperialPrinceton 10MITPrinceton Ecole Polytechnique ETH Zurich Consistency of Results 55

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( NAMECOUNTRYSCORE 11HARVARD UniversityUnited States100 2=2University of CAMBRIDGEUnited Kingdom100 2=3University of OXFORDUnited Kingdom100 2=4=YALE UniversityUnited States100 59Imperial College LONDONUnited Kingdom99 610PRINCETON UniversityUnited States100 7=7CALIFORNIA Institute of Technology (Caltech)United States100 7=11University of CHICAGOUnited States UCL (University College LONDON)United Kingdom96 104=MASSACHUSETTS Institute of Technology (MIT)United States COLUMBIA UniversityUnited States MCGILL UniversityCanada DUKE UniversityUnited States University of PENNSYLVANIAUnited States JOHNS HOPKINS UniversityUnited States99 16 AUSTRALIAN National UniversityAustralia =University of TOKYOJapan =University of HONG KONGHong Kong95 196STANFORD UniversityUnited States100 20=35=CARNEGIE MELLON UniversityUnited States96 The Results 56

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( Top Asia Pacific* Schools RANK IN REGION 2007 RANK 2006 RANK INSTITUTION NAMECOUNTRY PEER REVIEW RECRUITER REVIEW FACULTY STUDENT CITATIONS PER FACULTY INT'L FACULTY INT'L STUDENTS OVERALL 21719=University of TOKYOJapan =University of HONG KONGHong Kong =KYOTO UniversityJapan =19=National University of SINGAPORESingapore PEKING UniversityChina =50=The CHINESE University of Hong KongHong Kong TSINGHUA UniversityChina =OSAKA UniversityJapan =63SEOUL National UniversityKorea, South =58=HONG KONG University of Science & TechnologyHong Kong =NANYANG Technological UniversitySingapore =116=FUDAN UniversityChina =118TOKYO Institute of TechnologyJapan =102=108National TAIWAN UniversityTaiwan =102=168=TOHOKU UniversityJapan =128=NAGOYA UniversityJapan NANJING UniversityChina =198=KOREA Advanced Institute of Science & TechnologyKorea, South =KYUSHU UniversityJapan =154CITY University of Hong KongHong Kong =133=HOKKAIDO UniversityJapan =165=University of Science and Technology of CHINAChina =120KEIO UniversityJapan =179SHANGHAI JIAO TONG UniversityChina * Excludes Australia and New Zealand 57

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( Malaysia Results RANK IN REGION2007 RANK 2006 RANK INSTITUTION NAME PEER REVIEW RECRUITER REVIEW FACULTY STUDENT CITATIONS PER FACULTY INT'L FACULTY INT'L STUDENTS OVERALL 61246=192=Universiti MALAYA (UM) =277=Universiti Sains MALAYSIA (USM) =185 Universiti Kebangsaan MALAYSIA (UKM) =292=Universiti Putra MALAYSIA (UPM) =-Universiti Teknologi MALAYSIA (UTM)

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( Average Positions for Asian Institutions in the Top

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Peer opinion  Citations per paper  Not aggregated Faculty Level Data 60

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( Faculty Level: Top 5s  Arts & Humanities  Harvard  Berkeley  Oxford  Cambridge  Yale  Engineering & IT  MIT  Berkeley  Stanford  Caltech  Cambridge  Life Sciences & Biomedicine  Harvard  Cambridge  Oxford  Johns Hopkins  Berkeley  Natural Sciences  Berkeley  MIT  Cambridge  Harvard  Princeton  Social Sciences  Harvard  Berkeley  LSE  Yale  Stanford

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( Faculty Level: Malaysia  Arts & Humanities  USM (227)  UKM (233=)  UM (233=)  UPM (336)  Engineering & IT  UM (166)  UKM (192)  UPM (222)  USM (234)  UTM (328)  Life Sciences & Biomedicine  UM (107)  USM (122)  UKM (153)  UPM (207)  UTM (302)  Natural Sciences  UKM (116)  UM (124)  USM (161)  UPM (165)  Social Sciences  UM (119)  UKM (146)  USM (208=))  UPM (233)  UTM (356=)

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Available at  Top 100 for the following subject areas  Arts & Humanities  Engineering & IT  Life Sciences & BioMedicine  Natural Sciences  Social Sciences  World’s oldest universities  Year on year results The Results 63

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( THE FUTURE THE – QS World University Rankings

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Submit a broad range of quantitative and qualitative data (including those we need for the rankings) about your institution using our online interface   Populate and enrich your profile on  Educate visitors on other aspects of your institution Online Database 65

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Supply us with lists of employer contacts for the recruiter review  Exclusive single use only  Benefit your institution in recruiter review  Improve the overall strength of recruiter review Recruiter Review 66

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities (  Recruiter Review Breakdown  Preview Access to Recruiter Survey  Academic Sign Up Facility  Subject Focuses  Personalised Rankings  Innovation Showcase  Engagement Database  Entry Requirements Translator  PhD Matching Engine Coming Soon! 67

Copyright © 2008 QS Top Universities ( Thank You Ben Sowter Presentation slides available on