Academic

Reputation
Tracking:
Your Top 10
Questions
Answered
Everything you need to know about tracking your academic
reputation and how it informs the QS World University Rankings

www.qs.com/academicreputation
Contents

Introduction 1

Why should you care about tracking your academic reputation? 2

What’s involved in the QS Academic Survey and how many people respond? 2

Does the Academic Survey just look at the most recent year? 4

How do these survey results inform my academic reputation and rankings position? 4

Is there a difference between my institution’s domestic and international academic

reputation? How is this calculated? 5

How can I compare my academic reputation to domestic and international competitors? 5

Why do my closest competitors have better academic reputations than my institution? 6

What are the main areas I should focus on to improve my academic reputation? 6

What’s an example of a country that has significantly improved its academic reputation? 7

Where is this area heading in the future? How is academic reputation tracking evolving? 7

Conclusion 8

About QS 9

II Academic Reputation Tracking: Your Top 10 Questions Answered

Introduction
An institution’s academic reputation is a critical component
of its success.

To compete in this tough global marketplace, institutions

must continually measure, analyze, and invest in their
academic reputation.

To do so, institutions can examine how they perform

in global university rankings, explore the opinions and
perspectives of their peers, and utilize technology and
analytics to gain crucial insights.

In this white paper, we’ll delve into the top ten questions
that institutions have when it comes to tracking and
analyzing their academic reputation.

Read on to discover the answers your institution needs

to significantly improve its approach to its academic
reputation.

www.qs.com/academicreputation 1
 Why should you care about tracking your
1. academic reputation?
Your institution’s academic reputation can shape the opportunities it can access, the students it can attract, and the
academics it can recruit.

Additionally, academic reputation significantly shapes your institution’s position in the QS World University Rankings.
As the centrepiece of the rankings, the Academic Reputation Index boasts a weighting of 40%.

That’s why it’s crucial that your institution proactively and strategically tracks its academic reputation.

Finally, and most crucially, your academic reputation is important to prospective students.

In the 2019 International Student Survey, 57% of prospective international students picked high-quality teaching as the
most important factor when choosing a university.

What’s involved in the QS Academic Survey

2. and how many people respond?
The QS Academic Survey is the largest survey of its type, attracting more than 94,000 responses for the 2020 edition
of the rankings.

The QS World University Rankings are based on hard data and the results drawn from two large global surveys: one of
academics (the QS Academic Survey) and another of employers (the QS Employer Survey). These are unique characteristics
of the QS ranking approach.

Since 2004, the survey has evolved substantially but it primarily follows the same underlying principles. The survey asks
each respondent to specify their knowledge at the outset and then adapts based on their responses, the interactive
list from which respondents are invited to select features only entries from their own region.

Therefore, respondents are not asked to comment on the sciences if their expertise is in the arts, and respondents are
not asked to comment on Europe if their knowledge is centred on Asia.

The survey includes the following sections:

Ÿ Personal details: Name; institution; job title and classification; department; and years in academia.

2 Academic Reputation Tracking: Your Top 10 Questions Answered

 Ÿ Knowledge specification: Indicating which country they have the most familiarity with (rather than where they’re
based); indicating which region they have the most familiarity with (choosing between Americas; Asia; Australia
and New Zealand; and Europe, Middle East, and Africa); selecting one or more faculty areas where they think their
expertise lies (these include Arts and Humanities; Engineering and Technology; Life Sciences and Medicine; Natural
Sciences; and Social Sciences); and selecting up to two specific fields that best define their academic expertise.

Ÿ Top domestic institutions: Respondents are asked to identify up to 10 domestic institutions they consider the
best for research in each of the faculty areas they selected in the previous section. Their own institution, if it would
otherwise be included, is excluded from the presented list.

Ÿ Top international institutions: From the regions they chose, respondents are asked to identify up to 30 international
institutions they consider the best for research in each of the faculty areas they selected. Their own institution, if it
would otherwise be included, is excluded from the presented list.

Ÿ Additional information: Respondents are asked to provide feedback on previous publications and the importance
of various measures in evaluating universities.

QS has continuously rejected proposed criteria, such as financial metrics around research income, which cannot be
independently validated, or are subject to exchange rate and business cycle fluctuations.

Emphasis is placed on peer review for several critical reasons, including:

Ÿ Geographical/cultural diversity

Ÿ Unbiased approach to different subjects

Ÿ Contemporary relevance

Ÿ Reduced language bias

Ÿ Statistical validity

Ÿ Resistance to data manipulation

The responses to the QS Academic Survey come from a variety of sources across the globe. These include previous
respondents, and the IBIS Worldwide Academic and Library File.

It also includes a QS database of more than 25,000 academics who have signed up voluntarily to the survey. These
volunteers are screened to ensure institutions are not using the signup process to unduly influence the position of
their own or rival institutions.

QS also uses supplied lists from institutions; however, academics are not able to submit in favour of their own institution,
so the risk of bias is minimal. Nonetheless, submissions are screened, and sampling applied where any institution
submits more than 400 records.

www.qs.com/academicreputation 3
 Does the Academic Survey just look at the
3. most recent year?
To boost the size and stability of the sample, QS combines responses from the last five years, where any respondent has
responded more than once in the five-year period, previous responses are discarded in favour of the latest numbers.

Previously, the window for reputation measures was three years but this was extended to five years with the oldest two
years carrying a relative weight of 25% and 50% respectively. This decision was made due to the substantial growth of
survey samples over the lifetime of the project, resulting in inherently more robust reputation measures.

Any online survey will receive a volume of test or speculative responses, so QS runs an extensive filtering process to
identify and discard responses of this nature.

QS also runs a number of anomaly testing processes to screen for any manipulation of survey responses. If evidence is
found to suggest any institution has attempted to overtly influence their performance, any responses acquired through
volunteers or institution-supplied lists are discarded.

How do these survey results inform my

4. academic reputation and rankings position?
Once compiled, these survey results are then put through a rigorous process to determine accurate results.

Firstly, weightings are devised based on the regions with which respondents consider themselves familiar (these are
based only on completed responses). This is a complicated process as respondents can relate to more than one region.

Secondly, analysts create a weighted count of international respondents in favour of each institution, ensuring any
self-references are excluded.

They then derive a count of domestic respondents in favour of each institution, adjusted against the number of institutions
available for selection in that country and the total response from that country, ensuring any self-references are excluded.

A straight scaling is then applied to each of these to achieve a score out of 100. Combine the two scores with a weighting
of 85% international and 15% domestic.

These numbers are based on the analysis of responses received before QS decided to separate the domestic and
international responses three years ago, but a low weighting for domestic also reflects the fact that this is a world
university ranking. For the employer survey, the weighting is 50% international and 50% domestic.

Our analysts then square root the result. This allows us to draw in the outliers, but to a lesser degree than other methods
might achieve. Therefore, excellence in one of the five areas should have an influence, but not too much of influence.

4 Academic Reputation Tracking: Your Top 10 Questions Answered

They then scale the rooted score to present a score out of 100 for the given faculty area.

The five totals are then combined with equal weighting to result in a final score, which will then be standardized relative
to the sample of institutions being used in any given context.

After these numbers are all crunched, the academic reputation score an institution gets carries a weighting of 40% in
the QS World University Rankings.

Is there a difference between my

5. institution’s domestic and international
academic reputation? How is this
calculated?
As mentioned above, greater weighting is given to your institution's international reputation compared to its domestic
reputation.

The responses from international academics carry a weighting of 85% and the responses from domestic academics
carry a weighting of 15%.

You can break down this data by using an analytics tool, such as the QS Academic Reputation Tracker, to better
understand your results and the insights they reveal.

How can I compare my academic reputation

6. to domestic and international competitors?
You can also leverage the QS Academic Reputation Tracker to track the results of your key competitors.

The tracker dataset pulls exclusive data from the QS Academic Survey, allowing you to compare your performance
against a maximum of 15 selected peers.

To better understand the data provided, you can create your own visualizations with the support of our analysts or
through our user-friendly dashboards.

You can also filter responses provided about your institution by country of origin, subject, institution classification, or
job specification.

This provides you with a more granular analysis of how your institution is perceived.

To find out more about how your institution can make the most of the QS Academic Reputation Tracker, contact us
today: https://www.qs.com/academicreputation.

www.qs.com/academicreputation 5
 Why do my closest competitors have better
7. academic reputations than my institution?
This could be due to a multitude of factors, review the criteria and details shared in this white paper and identify areas
that your institution could work on this year.

The QS Academic Reputation Tracker can help your institution to:

Ÿ Analyze how its closest competitors are faring

Ÿ Explore how your academic reputation compares to institutional peers across a range of factors

Ÿ Identify a strategic plan for improvement

What are the main areas I should focus on

8. to improve my academic reputation?
While QS rankings analysts can’t provide you with specific actions you can take, the QS Academic Reputation Tracker
can identify areas for improvement and help your institution to set its strategic actions.

It’s important to take a holistic, long-term view when improving your academic reputation.

It’s not about just improving your academic reputation score to improve your position in the rankings.

It’s about taking proactive steps to improve your research output, build your academic relationships with peers across
the globe, and publish forward-thinking critical pieces of research.

6 Academic Reputation Tracking: Your Top 10 Questions Answered

 What’s an example of a country that
9. has significantly improved its academic
reputation?
One country that has made huge strides in its academic reputation and overall rankings performance is mainland China.

The QS World University Rankings Asia 2020 saw six new institutions from mainland China make it to the top 550
institutions and four institutions make it to the top ten.

In fourth place, the highest ranked institution from mainland China was Tsinghua University, which received a perfect
score in academic reputation and employer reputation.

Earlier this year, the QS World University Rankings 2020 also highlighted that China is seeing some impressive growth,
with the nation now boasting 19 of the world’s top 200 research universities, increasing from 12 in 2016.

Interestingly, the citations per faculty indicator, which measures research impact and productivity, is often the strongest
feature for Chinese institutions.

In the C9 League (an elite cohort of nine top Chinese universities that aim to rival the traditional Ivy League), the strongest
parts of their performance were their academic and employer reputations, research performance, and the faculty to
student ratio.

While the Chinese government has invested considerable funds in these universities, it’s worth examining the strategic
shifts these institutions have implemented to improve their academic reputations.

Where is this area heading in the future?

10. How is academic reputation tracking
evolving?
Examining and exploring your institution’s academic reputation is an ongoing exercise that empowers your academics
to strive towards bigger goals and inspires your institution to reflect on its own performance.

Ben Sowter, QS Director of Research, had a few final words to share on academic reputation tracking and the
future of this space:

“Long before rankings started attempting to measure it, academic reputation has been the cornerstone of university prestige.
As we move into an increasingly digital age and the potential for disruption grows, while the power and value of brand is
amplified, it’s inevitable that institutions will aim to curate their brand and monitor their reputation.”

“Academic reputation will influence collaboration and partnership opportunities, employment attractiveness and competitiveness,
and the ability to attract the best and brightest students, especially at a postgraduate level. Demand for a detailed understanding
of it will only escalate and QS finds itself with the world's pre-eminent dataset on the subject from which to derive insight.”
www.qs.com/academicreputation 7
Conclusion
Academic reputation is a crucial component of any
institution’s ecosystem.

As such, it should be treated as a strategic investment, one

which requires long-term planning, resources, and funding.

To ensure your institution nurtures and develops its

academic reputation, it must prioritize and invest in the
examination and analysis of the data that shapes it.

To find out more about the QS Academic Reputation

Tracker and how it can transform your institution, get in
touch with our expert term today:

https://www.qs.com/academicreputation.

8 Academic Reputation Tracking: Your Top 10 Questions Answered

About QS

QS Quacquarelli Symonds is the world’s leading provider of services, analytics, and insight to the global higher education
sector, whose mission is to enable motivated people anywhere in the world to fulfil their potential through educational
achievement, international mobility, and career development.

The QS World University Rankings portfolio, inaugurated in 2004, has grown to become the world’s most popular source
of comparative data about university performance. Their flagship website, www.TopUniversities.com – the home of
their rankings – was viewed 149 million times in 2019, and over 94,000 media clippings pertaining to, or mentioning,
QS were published by media outlets across the world in 2019.

Beyond QS’s publication of the world’s market-leading university rankings portfolio, QS also compile the QS International
Student Survey – the world’s largest survey of the sentiments, motivations, and preferences of prospective international
students. Their student-facing event series – The QS World Grad School Tour, QS World MBA Tour, and QS World
University Tour – gave 225,000 prospective students the chance to meet admissions directors at some of the world’s
top universities, across 365 events worldwide.

The QS Intelligence Unit – QS’s research and professional services division – provides universities across the world with
bespoke comparative performance analysis according to metrics central to each institution’s mission: teaching, research
impact, reputational standing, student employability, and internationalization.

They also oversee QS’s international conferences for higher education leaders. These include:

Ÿ Reimagine Education: The world’s leading award program and conference for teaching and learning innovation

Ÿ EduData Summit: A space uniting the world’s leading practitioners at the intersection of data and education

Ÿ QS APPLE: Asia’s foremost convention for higher education leaders

Ÿ And a range of subject-focused summits held with QS’s partner universities

In 2019, as part of its commitment to sustainability, QS became a certified CarbonNeutral® Company, reflecting their
efforts to reduce its impact on the environment through a range of efficiency initiatives and offsetting unavoidable
emissions through a verified carbon offset forestry project in Brazil.

If you would like to stay up to date with the latest insights and industry intelligence, please register for email alerts and
follow QS through LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.

www.qs.com/academicreputation 9