World Reputation Rankings 2016
Claim a free copy of the full World Reputation Rankings 2016 digital supplement
This is why the annual Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings, now in their sixth edition, have become a major fixture in the higher education calendar – serving as a yearly global academic brand audit and attracting news headlines across the world. The rankings are entirely subjective – they are based purely on an annual opinion survey. But that does not mean that they are not robust.
The survey is invitation-only, distributed in 15 languages and carefully balanced to be truly representative of global scholarship both in terms of the geographical spread of academics and the subject mix (see the World Reputation Rankings 2016 methodology). This year, more than 10,000 academics from 133 countries took the time to lend us their expertise and name the very best university departments in their specific field (up to 15 in each category), based on their deep personal knowledge.
Giving their views on institutions both nationally and globally, and on both teaching and research, our respondents have provided us with about 400,000 individual data points on how universities across the world are perceived by peers, country by country, and discipline by discipline. Since 2011, more than 80,000 survey responses have been gathered. We thank all respondents – once again – for helping us to create this robust, unique and incredibly rich picture of the shifting global higher education landscape.
Phil Baty
Editor, Times Higher Education Rankings