Global university rankings: ‘the who, the what and the why’

By Charlie Mathies. It’s that time of year when specialised global university rankings are being revealed. Last week Times Higher Education (THE) released their reputational rankings, and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) just publicised their world rankings by subject (academic disciplines). U-Multirank also released their ‘readymade’ rankings last month and will soon divulge their overall 2015 rankings. For each ranking there are differences in where a university may place, but why is this? It comes down to three main things:  the ‘who’, the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of global university rankings. More...