QS takes an integrated approach built on the world’s most comprehensive student data. Our insights don’t just describe the market – they shape clear strategies and action plans designed to achieve real outcomes. By combining analytics with advisory expertise, we help universities understand not only what the trends are but also how to respond.

Our expertise and experience span the full student journey and the wider context that shapes it – from reputation and rankings to skills and innovation. Because we engage directly with universities, students, employers, and governments, we bring a rounded perspective that helps align institutional goals with student expectations and the needs of the labour market and society.

Most universities don’t have the resources to pursue every region, so the challenge is deciding where efforts will have the most impact. The answer usually lies in a mix of factors: demand and growth trends, student readiness to apply and enrol, and the likelihood of long-term success.

QS helps universities navigate these decisions in different ways. Our product experts can advise based on your specific goals, while our global datasets and consultancy services provide the evidence needed to prioritise markets with confidence.  

Digital marketing open direct channels to students across global markets. It goes beyond raising awareness – targeted campaigns can highlight what makes an institution distinctive, guide students through the decision-making process, and encourage them to apply or enrol.

Done well, digital marketing also provides valuable feedback: every click, view, and engagement adds to the data picture. This helps universities understand which messages resonate, which markets show the most interest, and how to refine future activity for better results.

Yes, absolutely. Every university has priority markets and student cohorts they want to reach – whether that’s international postgraduates, undergraduates from specific regions, or niche subject-area students. The challenge is knowing where to focus and how to engage those students effectively.

QS can help you identify the right target markets and cohorts, then build tailored strategies to reach them. With our data insights, regional recruitment teams, and personalised engagement tools, we make it easier to connect with the students most likely to enrol at your institution.

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Reducing student no-shows starts with strong pre-arrival support. Many no-shows happen when students feel unprepared or anxious about practical issues.

QS reduces no-shows by combining enquiry management, admissions expertise, and regional recruitment services. We keep students informed and reassured before they travel, so the students who accept your offers are the ones who arrive.

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Regional recruitment is key to international student conversion. Students trust advice when it comes from someone who understands their culture, language, and concerns. Regional recruitment teams give that personal touch, making it easier for students (and their families) to say yes with confidence.

QS has specialist teams in key regions and priority markets who work as an extension of your university. They bring the local insight and relationships that help you convert more students.

Offer holders are close to saying yes, but they need confidence to commit. No single strategy works on its own – the best results come from a combination of:

• Clear, timely answers on visas, accommodation, and funding

• Regular, personal check-ins – not just mass emails

• Peer-to-peer conversations with current student ambassadors

• A smooth, guided journey from offer through to arrival

When these strategies work together, students feel supported and sure about their decision. QS helps universities bring it all into one coherent plan. Our AI-powered enquiry tools, admissions expertise, and ambassador programmes combine to keep offer holders engaged and reassured – so more of them enrol with you.

Students drop off when they don’t get clear, timely answers. The key sounds simple: respond quickly, make it personal, and guide them through every step. But scaling that kind of support can be tough – that’s where tools like AI enquiry handling, regional expertise, and tailored admissions services make a difference.

With QS, you can mix and match services to fit your needs. Whether it’s faster enquiry responses, smarter admissions support, or local recruitment on the ground, we help you move more students from first enquiry to confirmed enrolment.

Simplifies and automates the process of collecting and managing contact consent, reducing the risk of non-compliance and improving overall efficiency.

Staff can manage academic and employer contacts in individual portals, view details, and actively contribute to institutional reputation by submitting contacts for centralised storage and analysis.

Identify and manage strategic segments within your contact list to deliver highly relevant and personalised communications.

Leverage simple tables and visual reports to assess departmental reach and provide actionable feedback to stakeholders.

Utilise targeted email campaigns and newsletters with high personalisation and automated processes, maintaining brand consistency.

Manage academic and employer contacts seamlessly from a single location, ensuring GDPR compliance and eliminating data duplication.

Because reach is only powerful when it connects you with the right students. With 75+ million sessions a year, 250+ million ad impressions, and audiences in 190 countries, QS gives you unrivalled global visibility. But it’s our market intelligence and student insights that turn that scale into impact – ensuring your campaigns resonate with high-intent, high-quality prospects who are more likely to apply and enrol.

ROI isn’t just clicks – it’s quality leads, applications, and ultimately enrolments. Tracking across the funnel with clear attribution models helps you see what works. That’s why we focus on transparent reporting and actionable insights, so you can clearly link your digital campaigns to real outcomes.

Personalised messaging, timely follow-ups, and strong storytelling increase the likelihood that a curious prospect becomes an applicant, and an applicant becomes an enrolled student. By nurturing students with consistent communications that reflect your brand and by addressing key concerns like visas, housing, and funding, digital campaigns help keep them confident in their choice. With QS, you can build this journey with data-driven insights and tailored campaigns that strengthen your brand and guide students smoothly.

Social media, search engines, and trusted education platforms all play a vital role – but the most effective campaigns use a blend, reinforced by retargeting. This ensures you’re visible when students are both exploring and deciding. QS helps you find the perfect combination and manage multi-channel campaigns at scale.

Students make decisions online – from researching universities to comparing rankings and reading peer reviews. Digital marketing ensures you’re visible at every touchpoint in their journey, helping you build awareness and credibility across borders. QS supports this by combining global reach with data-driven targeting to connect you with the right students.

The International Executive MBA is already recognised as a consolidated and differentiated programme, but being awarded 5 Stars corroborates what we have been doing over the years, in terms of innovation in executive education, quality of content and our relationships with students and alumni. It is important to communicate these results to our stakeholders, as they are the recognition of the high quality of our faculty, staff, students and alumni. It is also important to share this significant outcome internationally, so that our business school is increasingly recognised.

The 5 Stars result achieved indicates that we are on the right path. QS Stars reinforces our brand globally and among other business schools around the world. The 5 Stars obtained in these criteria highlights the quality of FIA teaching, the impact of the school on the employability and the career of our students and how much we care about innovation and technology to ensure that they have the best training and development.

The QS Stars result attests to our excellence in the market. QS Stars is a rigorous, and recognised process that evaluates, compares and certifies the quality of the most important processes of a programme and/or institution. Potential students interested in the International Executive MBA can delve deeper into the QS Stars methodology to understand the criteria evaluated. It is important to say that students and alumni also contribute and answer the surveys that make up this result and this reinforces the satisfaction of those who are part of our learning community.

We are the first MBA and the first business school in Brazil to receive this important recognition and this makes us stand out in the market. The process at QS Stars helped us to evaluate and compare the FIA International Executive MBA with other leading MBA courses around the world. The classification obtained reinforces the quality of our teaching and the impact on the employability of our students. This result distinguishes the programme and helps potential students to access information about important criteria when choosing an MBA, so that they can make a more informed choice.

The top score obtained by the International Executive MBA at QS Stars is a very important recognition that reinforces the excellence of the programme, since the creation of the MBA in 1993. It helps us communicate the quality of our faculty and teaching to our students and alumni. The International Executive MBA had already received 5 Stars rating and now, with institutional and programme recognition at QS Stars, our brand is strengthened, and our stakeholders are even more engaged.

Learn about the basic of the QS Stars data collection portal

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Watch the demo in English

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Watch the demo in Spanish

The Interim Report provides a summary of each examined indicator in the methodology, the evaluation, as well as reasons for why some values differ from those provided by the institution. Thus, it gives a university a clear idea of what data is being accepted and serves as the basis for determining whether the institution is receiving partial, full, or no points.

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Watch the demo in English

Get up to speed on the new QS Stars categories. This demo will explain what each category means and what’s involved, along with other essential QS Stars info.

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Watch the demo in English

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Watch the demo in Spanish

Learn the main steps and procedures required for Business schools preparing for QS Stars audit based on new methodology.

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Download the file

In case you missed the third quarter webinar, check the insights, tips, and recommendations on QS Stars re-audit best practices from European University Cyprus, Universidad Europea, INTEC and QS Stars Institutional Support Senior Analysts, Joel Chowry and Elena Elie.

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Watch the recording in English

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Watch the recording in Spanish

Are you wondering how to make your brand stand out by highlighting your strengths? In this presentation by Shadi Hijazi, QS Principal Consultant, you will get to know about 3 types of narrative toolkits and its visual representation, as well as see practical storytelling examples for QS Stars results.

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See the presentation

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Download the updated toolkit

In this video, Selma Toohey, QS Europe Director discusses branding with QS Stars. Learn how to leverage QS Stars to improve your university’s brand by emphasizing its unique strengths and areas of excellence. Explore practical examples demonstrating how these branding strategies can be effectively implemented at your institution.

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Watch the video

Our new branding toolkit will help you share the success stories of your institution. It’s full of tools that make it easy to highlight your achievements in a clear and impactful way.

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Download toolkit 1: Telling your QS Stars story

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Download toolkit 2: Maximizing your QS Stars visibility

We are excited to announce the introduction of our dynamic new digital badge branding. The digital badges are easily shareable across online platforms, enhancing your visibility and impact in today’s tech-driven world. By integrating the digital badges, we’re not just celebrating your successes – we’re ensuring that you have the most modern tools to stand out and stay ahead in your field.

Discover the benefits of the digital badges and the ways to effectively integrate them into different communication channels.

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Read about its benefits

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Watch the demo how to use digital badges

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Important: Please ensure to check your inbox to receive the links to your new digital badges.

Your institution must have a valid QS Stars subscription in place and have agreed to publish results in full on the TopUniversities website.

We’ve introduced new QS Stars subscription models with exclusive benefits, tailored to meet your institution’s evolving needs. Take an advantage of these benefits for your next renewal.

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Take a look at new subscription models

• Universidad Regional Autonoma de los Andes

• DePaul University

• The Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara
• Empower Talent e-Learning
• Lucerne School of Business
• CESPU-Cooperativa De Ensino Superior Politecnico E Universitario
• Egas Moniz – Cooperativa de Ensino Superior, Crl
• GRUPO PEDAGO

• Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University
• Almaty Management University
  Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University
• Azerbaijan University
• Bangkokthonburi University
• Beijing University of Chemical Technology
• British University Vietnam
• Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University
• Guilin University of Technology
• Iloilo Science and Technology University
• Korkyt Ata Kyzylorda University
• Lankaran State University
• Open University Malaysia
• Osh Technological University
• Saint Louis University, Philippines
• Tashkent State Technical University named after Islam Karimov
• University of Mindanao
• University of Perpetual Help System DALTA
• University of Perpetual Help System Laguna

• Al Al-Bayt University

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The student recruitment journey usually moves through five stages: awareness, interest, application, admission, and enrolment. Each step is a chance to either lose or win the right student. That’s why QS offers solutions designed for every stage – boosting visibility through our rankings and events, nurturing student interest with digital campaigns, and supporting conversion with tools that help more applicants choose your institution.

Growing and diversifying enrolments means reaching the right students in the right way. QS helps universities do that through international marketing campaigns, recruitment events that connect you directly with students, and digital platforms that reach millions worldwide. Our advisory and analytics solutions give you the insight and confidence to set clear strategies and make informed decisions – helping you attract qualified, diverse candidates and build a more global, resilient student body.

Unlike traditional education agents, QS Apply combines independent counselling, rigorous QA, and a global partner network. Integrated with QS Rankings, events, and digital platforms, it offers a predictable path from enquiry to enrolment. Universities benefit from a single partnership that reduces complexity and improves application quality.

All applications are checked by our central admissions team for eligibility and compliance. We clarify financial expectations early, verify documentation, and route every case through rigorous quality control. Only qualified, well-prepared candidates are submitted to universities.

We activate a mix of long-tail and high-volume markets through local advisors and vetted partners, bringing you applicants from regions that are often under-represented on campus.

We support foundation, undergraduate, and postgraduate enrolments into institutions across the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, UAE, Australia, and New Zealand.

QS Apply is a global, end-to-end admissions service that connects international students with best-fit universities. We support all types of institutions - from globally ranked to niche and specialist schools - by showcasing programme strengths, affordability, and location to the right-fit students. Universities gain a partner to streamline recruitment and diversify their student pipeline.

With QS Stars, put your institution on the map, and get recognised for your excellence.

Discover QS Stars

Use QS MoveON to easily navigate the complexity of student mobility and open new opportunities for your students to study abroad in India, or vice versa.

Discover QS MoveON

Convert students effectively with expert in-country representation in India.

Discover the QS Regional Recruitment Service

Recruit more students, diversify your campus and bring new ideas to your institution.

Discover QS Student Recruitment Events

Join higher education experts and leaders for the QS India Summit. Network with prospective partners in India and the rest of the world.

Discover the QS India Summit

Formulate and confidently enact your plan to launch international branch campuses in India, buoyed with the expertise and quality assurance QS provides.

Discover QS higher education consultancy services

Utilise the full breadth of QS insights, direction and expertise through our higher education consultants. Whether you’re an Indian institution looking to reach new heights, or a global university looking to forge partnerships in India.

Discover QS higher education consultancy services

“The highest growth in demand is from traditional strongholds which are typically high-volume markets including India and that is putting a lot of internal operational pressure on us. That’s why it has been so good to lean on QS, for the support, for the technology and for the insights. They’ve really helped us.”

- Marko Remes, Dean, International Business Operations

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“QS is able to engage the Global South to connect with the interests of the Global North.”

- Professor Raj Kumar, Founding Vice-Chancellor

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“The QS India Summit was a fantastic opportunity to engage with colleagues from the UK, QS, and a host of international universities. We made some invaluable connections with Indian institutions. Needless to say, meeting such a diverse and insightful group of institutions is constantly shaping Sheffield’s activity in India, and this is a strategic focus for the University in the coming years.”

- Professor Koen Lamberts, President & Vice-Chancellor

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The QS India Summit 2024 “crystallised our thinking about what we wanted to do in India.”

- Professor Mark E. Smith, President and Vice-Chancellor

Watch the full testimonial

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QS Apply gives you up-to-date insights from thousands of student applications to 500+ partner institutions worldwide. You can:

• Identify which markets deliver qualified applicants

• Track programme demand and application trends

• See how conversion rates differ by region

• Because every application is vetted by QS’s central admissions team, you receive higher-quality candidates and fewer poor-fit leads. Combined with our global counsellor network and local market knowledge, QS Apply helps you diversify recruitment, target effectively, and improve enrolment outcomes.

Recruitment consulting partners give universities an outside perspective and tested strategies. A partner like QS can help you:

• Set clear recruitment goals

• Enter new markets with reliable insights

• Improve ROI on marketing and recruitment spend

Instead of trial and error, you get a tailored approach that saves time, avoids wasted investment, and delivers better student outcomes.

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Most universities don’t have the resources to go everywhere – so they use data to focus on markets with the highest potential. Key factors include:

• Student demand and growth trends

• How ready students are to apply and enrol

• Likelihood of long-term success and retention

QS supports this with global survey data, dashboards, and in-market expertise, so universities can confidently prioritise regions and reduce the risk of over-reliance on a single market.

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QS dashboards give universities access to detailed insights about prospective students worldwide. Institutions can see what motivates students to study abroad, which destinations and programmes are most in demand, and how perceptions shift over time.  

By using QS dashboards, universities can track competitor benchmarks, understand market sentiment, and refine recruitment strategies to connect with the right students in the right places.

Data helps universities make smarter recruitment decisions. Instead of guessing which markets to invest in, data shows where student demand is growing, what motivates applicants, and which campaigns actually convert. This means universities can:

• Focus marketing spend where it works best.

• Improve enquiry-to-enrolment conversion rates.

• Attract students who are more likely to succeed and stay enrolled.

In short, data takes the risk out of recruitment and helps institutions grow sustainably.

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Regulated Regionalism, where geopolitical fragmentation leads to strong intra-regional mobility and emerging destinations accelerate ahead.

Hybrid Multiversity, a world of blended, tech-enabled models that reshape where and how students learn, featuring a strong push towards transnational campuses and blended learning models.

Talent Race Rebound, a high-growth, globally competitive environment where nations aggressively seek international students as future citizens and workers, by offering structured immigration pathways. This scenario is grounded in deeper alignment between government, industry and education.

Our forecast points to 8.5 million international students by 2030 – but what happens next depends on how the world responds to both challenge and opportunity. The Global Student Flows global report helps you anticipate change, compare flow patterns, and build proactive, evidence-led strategies.

Global Student Flows forecasts multi-directional student mobility, guiding international education strategy for governments, institutions and the global talent ecosystem. The data and insights have been released as a global report, with regional reports following. The insights are accompanied by a series of webinars.

We host summits and forums across the globe. Find an event suitable for your via our conference calendar.

There are various options for you to choose from when you sponsor a Summit. You can sponsor a panel, the drinks reception, the whole event, or even the coffee cart. Get in touch and we can provide sponsorship opportunities to fit your budget.

When we fully understand your needs, we can provide a full breakdown of costs associated with sponsorship.

Yes, QS can help with marketing to specific nationalities, in alignment with your institutional strategy.

QS provides dedicated pre-arrival support through enquiry management, admissions expertise, and regional recruitment services. By ensuring students feel informed and supported every step of the way, we address concerns before they escalate. This reduces last-minute withdrawals and helps your institution welcome more of the students who have already chosen you.

Many students receive offers but struggle with unanswered questions around visas, accommodation, or funding. Others feel unable to make a decision with confidence because communications from institutions are generic and impersonal. These gaps in support often cause students to hesitate, or accept offers elsewhere. QS bridges this gap by delivering targeted, personalised engagement that builds confidence and commitment.

There are a range of ways universities can improve conversion rates, such as scaling teams, or using artificial intelligence to triage high-intent students.

QS is trusted by universities worldwide because of our combination of global reach and proven expertise. We connect you with high-intent students who are actively exploring study abroad opportunities. By integrating digital tools, events, and personalised guidance, QS helps you achieve stronger conversion rates and long-term enrolment growth.

Our product experts can advise based on your goals - contact us to find out more. Alternatively, explore our Consultancy service, or self-serve world-class data via QS Datasets.

Successful international recruitment starts with visibility. Universities need to connect with the right students through targeted digital campaigns, clear course information, and engaging in-person or virtual events. The most effective strategies also use local insights to build trust. By working with QS, universities can combine global reach with regional expertise to maximise international student enrolments.

Student recruitment drives more than just enrolment numbers. It helps universities attract diverse, high-quality applicants, strengthen their international reputation, and secure long-term growth. With competition for students increasing worldwide, effective recruitment ensures institutions stand out and connect with the right learners. QS supports universities with data-driven insights, global reach, and tailored strategies – helping you boost applications, improve student fit, and thrive in a competitive higher education landscape.

Ever feel like student recruitment just keeps getting more complicated? Universities everywhere are dealing with rising competition, shifting demographics, and increasing expectations around affordability, employability, and the student experience. Add international recruitment into the mix – visas, language barriers, cultural differences – and the complexity only grows. QS helps institutions cut through these challenges with local expertise, trusted student events, and digital platforms that make it easier to connect with the right students.

QS supports you at every stage of the recruitment process. From global student fairs and targeted digital marketing to lead generation, application management, and powerful data insights, we help you connect with motivated students worldwide. With in-market teams who understand local admissions processes and cultural context, QS makes it easier to attract applicants who are not only qualified but also more likely to enrol and thrive.

You should submit data for your institution through our QS HUB platform. Please contact our Institution Support Team via our helpdesk if you do not have login details, or need further support. You can find more information on the data submission process on our support portal.

Our precise data collection timeline changes each year, but generally we follow a similar schedule:

• Survey contacts submission: September – January  

• Academic & Employer Surveys: November – April

• Institutional data submission: September – February  

• Sustainability data submission: January – April

You can check the support portal for the latest information on key deadlines.

CENTRL Office, 525 3rd St Suite 200, Lake Oswego, OR 97034

Convene Hamilton Square

600 14th St NW

Washington, DC 20005

12 Marina View, Office 11-01, Asia Square Tower 2 Singapore, 018961

QS Eastern Europe SRL

3rd Floor, 114-116 Stirbei Voda

District 1, Bucharest 010119

Flat 4, 11 Pietersburg Street, Off Nairobi Street

Wuse 2, Abuja 900211

Units 25-8 and 25-9, Q Sentral, No 2A Jalan Stesen Sentral 2

Kuala Lumpur Sentral, 50470

405 Neelkanth Corporate Park, Kirol Road, Vidhyavihar West
Mumbai, 400 086

Phone: +91 22 2514 2261

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4th Floor, Nitesh Timesquare, Sy No. 8, M.G. Road
Bengaluru, 560 001

Phone: +91 80 2252 9934

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QS Unisolution GmbH
Friedrichstraße 15
70174 Stuttgart

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Spaces Bonne Nouvelle, 17-21 rue Saint Fiacre

Paris, 75002

Haymarket HQ, Level 2, 63-69 Dixon Street

Haymarket, NSW 2000

Level 22, Office 108, 120 Spencer Street

Melbourne, VIC 3000

1 Tranley Mews, Fleet Road
London, NW3 2DG

Phone: +44 (0) 207 284 7200

Every partnership we forge is unique, meeting the exact needs of each university. Because of this, the cost of the service varies greatly dependent on many factors, such as scale of the service, timeframes, geographical locations and technology deployed. We offer 12 month proof-of-concept pilots, which are popular with our university partners as they provide an opportunity to test our services and show university stakeholders the impact before a longer-term partnership develops.

QS machine learning is a powerful AI-assisted technology for student recruitment. We have developed this technology over the last four years with our university partners. It uses insights and data to help identify which enquiries, applicants or offer holders are more likely to convert. Universities and QS can then focus efforts on these individuals to have the biggest impact on the conversion rate, enrolments and improve ROI.

Almost all our university partners already have a CRM system and teams who are delivering activities to convert and enrol students. Our services our designed to complement and enhance your existing systems and activities. Many of our university partners have integrated their CRM with ours (we will work with your IT teams to achieve this). We also provide access to our CRM system so you can view the details of your prospects at any time. Some university partners ask us to support them with particular cohorts, e.g. courses, countries or regions, and some their whole service. We can adapt our services to meet your needs and as part of our onboarding process we will make sure our activities align and complement yours, with regular reporting and feedback to maximize the results.

Our team is an extension of yours.

We work with you to develop a bespoke onboarding schedule for all QS staff involved in our partnership that enables to absorb your institutional DNA, perfectly align with your brand and emulate your tone of voice. Building on the experience of dozens of large-scale partnerships, we ensure our professional education sales and admissions teams know every pertinent detail about your courses, location and university so we can support your enquirers. All the communications we send are university branded and when prospective students speak to QS advisors they will be speaking to a true extension of the university teams.

Explore the QS World University Rankings suite and understand the rankings you are eligible for. Each of the QS World University Rankings measure different segments of higher education. Whether we’re ranking universities, business schools, the subjects institutions teach, or their sustainability performance – each ranking requires slightly different data. You can find that information on our support portal.

Not all higher education institutions are eligible for our rankings, and not all eligible institutions are ranked. QS rankings are designed to evaluate and compare broadly similar types of institutions, and each of our rankings has different eligibility criteria. You can visit our support portal for information on eligibility and inclusion criteria per ranking.

The university has full visibility on the appointed local expert. We will work with the university to detail job responsibility, objectives and more.

Goal setting, strategic alignment, and resource allocation for the targeted region is done by the university to ensure the expert is fully integrated.