This 21st edition of our rankings comes at a time when priorities in higher education are evolving. QS sits in the privileged position of being a nexus point in the higher education sector – connected to millions of students, hundreds of thousands of academics and employers, and thousands of institutions worldwide. We have seen the focus of these different stakeholder’s shift in response to wider trends in education and society, and to reflect this collective intelligence in our QS performance insights, we have incorporated three new indicators into the QS World University Ranking.
Sustainability
Sustainability has become a touchpoint for global institutions as they come to realise their impact on the world, and students have come to expect institutions to tackle issues related to social and climate justice. The QS International Student Survey 2022 found that 80% of students think universities could do more for the environment. This is reflective of a wider trend of younger students who advocate strongly for social and environmental activism. We have recognised this call to action by adding a 5% weight Sustainability lens to our flagship world ranking, the first of the major rankings to do so to reflect the crucial role universities play in charting the course and driving change towards a more sustainable future.
Employability
We have also continued to strengthen our insight on employability and remain the only major ranking to enshrine the importance of employability in our methodology. To do this, we have boosted the weight of Employer Reputation to 15% and added Employment Outcomes at 5%.
International Research Network
Our third new metric, International Research Network, is another way of recognising the importance of research in changing the world. This metric specifically provides insight on how internationally connected an institution’s research is as well as recognising the importance of collaborative research more broadly.
| Performances Lenses | 2024 Edition Weights | Change from previous editions |
| Academic Reputation | 30% | 10% deducted |
| Employer Reputation | 15% | 5% added |
| Faculty Student Ratio | 10% | 10% deducted |
| Citations per Faculty | 20% | No change |
| International Faculty Ratio | 5% | No change |
| International Student Ratio | 5% | No change |
| International Research Network | 5% | New |
| Employment Outcomes | 5% | New |
| Sustainability | 5% | New |
To be eligible for this ranking, institutions must fulfil our Eligibility Criteria.
If an institution is eligible, it then must pass the following 3 thresholds to be analysed as part of the sample. Note that "being analysed" does not necessarily mean "being published" (see Inclusion Criteria).
| 1 | New Entrants | A new entrant should be in the global Top 20% in academic reputation.*1 |
| 2 | Paper Threshold |
For the QS World University Rankings, an institution should have at least 100 papers indexed by Scopus and published over a 5-year window. Only papers of relevant paper types and after affiliation cap is applied are considered. |
| 3 | Small Size |
If an institution is of small size (fewer than 5,000 students), then we look at the performance in Academic Reputation, Employer reputation and Citations per Faculty. More specifically, we need at least one of following conditions to be met for the last few editions:
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