The most common world university league tables are QS, Times Higher Education (THE) and Shanghai Ranking Consultancy-the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). They use different metrics hence results for a same university differ a lot in these league tables. Universities tend to choose whichever league table they perform the best in their marketing materials.
The QS rankings put student experience at the top, emphasising the importance of a diverse and international student and staff community, student faculty ratio, and reputation from big employers. This ranking is perhaps suited to those who do not intend to do research after university, and go straight for the job market. Times THE rankings is a more research heavy split between research and student experience, where only teaching is weighted somewhat, and a very small weighting on diversity. This ranking is good for those who intend to go into research. ARWU is almost a purely research based ranking, given no consideration of teaching or student prospects.
Personally, I think THE provides a more comprehensive picture of UK universities (103 UK institutions are ranked), comparing with 90 UK institutions in the QS league table. I would say THE is the most comprehensive ranking among the three, then QS, and ARWU is the least useful one.
QS world university ranking assesses around 4,700 institutions, but only publishes the ranking positions of those at the top of the range. In the QS, only the top 600 institutions are given individual ranking positions (the same applies to the top 200 in the Times Higher Education world ranking). After this, universities are grouped into bands, starting from 601-610 and continuing until 1401+.
It is worth to note that even making it to the lowest level of the world university rankings is an achievement, putting an institution within the top 2-5% worldwide.
To be eligible for inclusion in the QS league table, a university must teach at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels (universities which teach postgraduate only are not eligible, e.g. Royal College of Art is not eligible for QS ranking), and conduct work in at least two of five possible subject areas (arts and humanities; engineering and technology; social sciences and management; natural sciences; life sciences and medicine). Similar criteria apply for the Times Higher Education ranking: institutions are excluded if they do not teach at undergraduate level, or if their research output falls below a certain threshold.
Below, I used European universities as examples for each band in QS ranking.
- Individual rankings for top 600 universities
- 601-610 (interval of 10 until 800), e.g. Kingston University, London ranked 601-610
- 801-850 (interval of 50 until 1000), e.g. De Montfort University, UK ranked 801-850
- 1001-1200, e.g. University of Derby, UK
- 1201-1400, e.g. Norwegian University of Life Sciences
- The lowest band is 1401+, e.g. Technische Universität Hamburg, Germany
