Affirmative action is designed to help give disadvantaged students equal opportunities, but not everyone agrees with current policies. In the United States, affirmative action has been a part of many universities’ enrolment for several decades. The term refers to policies which favour typically disadvantaged groups, with African Americans the most common intended beneficiaries. The end

The arts and humanities rankings cover English language and literature, geography, history, linguistics and philosophy. One of the most interesting things that the QS University Rankings by Subject 2012: Arts and Humanities  reveal is a concentration of strength in certain regions of the world in certain disciplines.

This year’s QS World University Rankings by Subject cover a record 29 disciplines, and the headline figure tells a familiar story. MIT and Harvard underline their place at the forefront of global academia in a range of fields, topping the tables in 11 disciplines apiece, with fellow US institution Stanford University taking 3 top spots.

The release of the QS World University by Subject revealed some interesting trends. The big picture for natural sciences is much the same as in most subject areas: overall US domination, interspersed with fairly stable performance from universities in other well-established higher education destinations, and – in general – the most exciting upwards movement coming

A second round of global comparisons of universities and specialist institutions in 29 subjects will begin to be published on Friday, 29th of June. The new QS World University Rankings by Subject will be released in four tranches, beginning with the social sciences. They will feature improvements to the methodology introduced last year in the

One distinctive role of universities is to produce new knowledge. Sometimes, as with Albert Einstein’s classic 1905 paper on relativity, a single insight can change the world. But in the present era of university competition, it is not wise to rely on lone genius. Instead, QS has produced an analysis of the world’s most productive

Most of the universities we see at the top of world rankings have something in common. They are in rich, comfortable places such as the UK, the US or Japan. It is rare to see institutions in the developing world do well here because of the sheer cost of a top university system and of

A pioneer of intellectual property in the Arab world is planning a global university that will provide online access to courses from some of the world’s leading universities. Talal Abu-Ghazeleh, a Jordanian entrepreneur who has held senior positions in the United Nations, outlined his plans at the Gulf Education conference, in London. He already sponsors