Quacquarelli Symonds

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) is a British company specialising in education and study abroad.[1] The company was founded in 1990 [2] by Nunzio Quacquarelli.[3] Today, QS has over 250 employees and operates globally from offices in London (head office in Hampstead, North London); New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C., United States; Paris, France; Singapore; Stuttgart, Germany; Sydney, Australia; Shanghai, China; Johannesburg, South Africa; and Alicante, Spain. QS provides services for undergraduates, graduates, Masters, Ph.D., MBA, and Executive MBA candidates. It offers publications and events to broaden the scope of study abroad. QS runs events and produces guides for postgraduates across 35 countries.[4]

History

Major rankings

QS has published various university rankings.

At first, it had cooperated with the Times Higher Education to release annual world university rankings, the THE-QS World University Rankings, since 2004 and was the data provider of the rankings. However, it ended its partnership with Times after the release of their 2009 rankings and both have worked out their own rankings afterward with QS using the same methodology while Times which has then cooperated with Thomson Reuters using an adjusted one. Now, the rankings published by QS are known as the QS World University Rankings.

Generally, the QS World University Rankings is regarded as one of the three most influential university rankings in the world, along with the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities.[8][9][10]

Research

The QS Intelligence Unit is a part of QS which provides strategic information to business schools, universities, and employers going beyond the information contained in the World University Rankings. Its products include:

Benchmarking

QS draws on the data collected for the QS World University Rankings and other information which it gathers to offer a benchmarking services to universities, comparing them with their peers.

QS Stars

QS Stars is a system used to evaluate universities on a range of performance indicators. These include research quality, graduate employability, careers service support, teaching quality, infrastructure such as sports facilities and medical care, student societies and accommodation, IT and libraries, international appeal, innovation and knowledge transfer, and community involvement.

Advisory

The advisory services provided by the QS Intelligence Unit assist universities and other higher education institutions in attempting to raise standards. The teams also provide a parallel service for government and quasi-governmental organisations that are aiming to enhance their country’s higher education standards institutionally, regionally, or nationally.

Research Partner Identification

This offering systematically finds the optimal international research partners for the universities with considerations for impact, subject excellence, and research reputation. The approach is a mix of both quantitative and qualitative analyses.

Software

QS delivers admissions and careers service solutions for universities, business schools, alumni networks and other relevant communities that require online; outreach, enquiry management, applications and networking solutions.

QS MBA Events

QS runs a number of MBA related events, notably the World MBA Tour and TopMBA Connect 121, in major cities around the world designed to provide a meeting place for business schools and prospective MBA candidates. Schools that regularly attend these events include University of Chicago Booth School of Business, USC Marshall, NYU Stern, the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell, INSEAD, IE Business School, ESADE, London Business School, HEC Paris, the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University, IMD, and CEIBS.

Scholarships

QS Trust awards scholarships each year to six or more outstanding young professionals for their demonstration of socially responsible leadership. The QS Trust also runs a scholarship scheme in collaboration with business schools and universities around the world. In 2009, QS offered US$1,600,000 in scholarship funding to participants from around the world.

References

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