QS World Ranking 2024

QS World Rankings is an authoritative list with many, if not most, universities worldwide ranked based on many factors. QS Rankings are considered the most reliable by students for their authenticity and the methodology used by them. Each year, these rankings help thousands of international students meticulously choose their university and course. One of the rankings is the QS World University Rankings, which is highly popular among study-abroad aspirants.

Students willing to pursue their higher education abroad can make use of the QS Rankings as they give them a clear picture of the ranking of a university and its other details related to courses, pedagogy, placement rate, popularity and more. The rankings are made after conducting a lot of surveys among the students and faculties studying and working in those universities. These rankings change each year, therefore students need to update themselves to have a clear understanding of a university’s ranking in various factors.

QS World University Ranking 2024, the most prestigious and the most anticipated, has been published. It is time for students to utilise the ranking list to shortlist the universities and their preferred courses to start their study-abroad journey this academic year. Like the previous years, the QS publication has released a wide range of ranking lists for a variety of factors this 2024. 

The QS World University Ranking list is determined by six factors. Let’s discuss them in detail below.

• Academic Peer Review/Academic Reputation - The first and foremost criterion considered while ranking the world universities is their academic reputation. The academic reputation is judged based on the university’s teaching and research qualities and the impact they make on the students. In a nutshell, the QS publication requests the opinions of over 1,30,000 people across the education sector, which is considered the largest survey in the world.

• Employer Review/Reputation - The second factor considered is the Employer's reputation. The term indicates the reputation of universities among employers in their countries. The reputation is decided on the basis of the universities’ competency to provide skilled graduates who are innovative, creative and effective.

• Faculty/Student Ratio - The Faculty to Student Ratio is one of the most crucial factors in determining the world rank of a university. A university is given a fair mark if they have adequate academicians or lecturers for a group of students in a class. On the contrary, if a university possesses only a few lecturers for a big group of students in a class, its reputation will fall short, affecting its ranking.

• Citations Per Faculty - Citations Per Faculty’ is considered important for a research-based university. To get more recognition for their university, it must have submitted thesis papers of its lecturers with maximum citations in five years. This factor tests the knowledge of the university’s lecturers and their efforts to provide a strong proof-backed thesis.

• International Student Ratio and International Faculty Ratio - A university is ranked based on this factor because the QS system thinks it is one of the crucial requirements, and a university should excel at it to get ranked high. Attracting a high number of international students and faculties demonstrates that the university provides its best in terms of teaching, infrastructure, facilities and employment opportunities.

Each factor is allocated a certain weightage to help students understand its importance. The weightage allotment is purely done by the QS’ Intelligence Unit by considering the most crucial thing for students in their pursuit of higher education.