2004

2005

Employer Reputation is added in 2005. The weighting on Academic Reputation is dropped from 50% to 40% to make way for the new indicator
Introduced Mardev as a key source of Academic Responses

Individual fact files are distributed for the first time, giving institutions advanced warning of the news to come
Invited institutions to supply lists of employers for us to be included in the Employer Survey

Switch to Scopus from Thomson’s Essential Science Indicators for publication and citation data. Broader journal coverage means more institutions than ever are reflected in our citations analysis
Survey respondents are prevented from responding on behalf of their own institution
Definitions are standardized to require Full Time Equivalent (FTE/EFTS) data for all faculty and student submissions
Indicators are normalized for the first time to ensure fair and consistent application of weightings

QS Classifications released for the first time using alpha-numeric notation to group institutions by size, focus and research intensity
Switched to Qualtrics for survey delivery, implemented AJAX “type to search” questions
Implemented Academic Sign-up Facility to invite academics to volunteer to participate in Academic Survey
Inaugural QS Asian University Rankings published

QS Core launched, a new custom built system designed to help gather and manage data submissions from universities
Classifications refined for increased versatility and readability
Damping mechanism applied to eliminate swings beyond certain thresholds
Cap of 50% applied to international indicators
Scaling adjusted to reduce volatility amongst the lower ranked institutions
Invited institutions to supply lists of academics to augment the academic survey
Established International Advisory Board

Released rankings at a discipline level (26 subjects) for the first time
Dropped World Scientific as a key channel for academic respondents
Self-citations excluded for the first time
Survey weightings refined to control outlying response levels at a country level
Academic respondents from a given institution (who cannot respond for that institution) excluded from the calculation of domestic reputation
Age metric added to QS Classifications
QS SAFE extended to embrace institutions in the top 700
Inaugural QS University Rankings – Latin America launched