By Danny Byrne This year’s rankings reflect proactive schemes to improve standards at many Asian universities. Ambitious schemes implemented by governments throughout Asia have led to dramatic developments in international recognition and research standards, and this improvement is again reflected in the 2011 QS World University Rankings®. Of the leading 25 Asian universities, 21 improve

by Martin Ince They may be at an early stage in their development, but investment schemes of Middle Eastern nations are beginning to pay dividends. Across the Middle East, nations large and small are developing plans for higher education. Some have immeasurable sums of oil wealth to spend on this ambition, but even those that

by Tim Rogers We live in very interesting times. For decades, the topic of higher education, university admissions, tuition fees and graduate employment featured, if at all, buried deep in the pages of our national newspapers. In recent months, however, since the release of the Browne Report and the UK Government’s White Paper on higher

By Martin Ince, convenor of the QS Global Academic Advisory Board Europe’s universities have received a qualified vote of confidence from companies in the EU. The European Commission’s latest survey of business research shows that they regard collaboration with universities as a principal reason to do research in the EU. They also say that the

By Danny Byrne Young institutions are having an ever bigger impact on the QS World University Rankings. One might reasonably expect universities to abide by the laws of the space-time continuum by getting older each year. Yet the average age of the top 100 in the 2011 QS World University Rankings® is seven years younger

by John O’Leary With more countries than ever represented, this year’s rankings reflect global investment in higher education. When Cambridge topped the QS World University Rankings® for the first time last year, some commentators thought it a one-off interruption to Harvard’s global supremacy. But Cambridge shows today that its pre-eminence was no fluke by retaining

By Martin Ince, convenor of the QS Global Academic Advisory Board   August saw the launch of the ninth edition of the Academic Ranking of World Universities from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, now published by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy. ARWU uses a completely different methodology from the QS World University Rankings and is mainly concerned with