Finnegan
Writing this, sitting in Dublin at the 2023 QS Higher Ed Summit: Europe, only a few hours before the launch of the 20th edition of the QS World University Rankings, there is palpable excitement in the air. As the first, large-scale European conference QS has held, and the third overall after virtual and small hybrid events the past two years, the summit itself is an opportunity to connect with new colleagues and reconnect with old after a prolonged period of limited travel.
But it’s marque moment, the launch of the 2024 QS World University Rankings, has its own rhythm and rhyme to the spirit of the event. While the summits are not new, the European is unique; different. After almost 20 years of the Asia Pacific summit, followed shortly after by the Middle East and Africa summit, Americas became a new addition to adapt and improve the way the sector engages, understands and collaborates with itself. Europe followed shortly after, bringing about comprehensive coverage, not just of geographics, but the novel concerns of universities around the world.
If you’ve missed the news, the ranking is also adapting this year. New metrics in the methodology have been included to better engage, understand and collaborate with the higher education sector. Key among them are metrics on sustainability, following the
launch of the QS Sustainability Ranking in late 2022. Like the summit at which it will be launched, the new metrics also reflect some of the novel concerns of universities around the world.
Throughout the magazines and the QS Yearbook, we have regularly written about how the sector can and must adapt, change and begin again. The cover story of the first issue of the Higher Ed Report in 2021, coincidentally featuring the 2022 QS World University Rankings, reflected these evolutions. Set/reset aimed to document how the sector had adapted during the pandemic and how it would continue to change in the future.
Two years later, in this special edition of QS Insights Magazine to celebrate the 20th edition of the WUR, we repeat that process, but instead turn our lens inwards to look at how the rankings, and QS as a whole, has changed across its history. Inside, you’ll find an oral history of the WUR from those who were there at its inception, as well as further information on the adapted methodology.
20 years is a long time, and we’re excited to see how another 20 will further shape the rankings and the sector.
Stay safe out there.
Anton John Crace
Anton is Editor in Chief of QS Insights Magazine. He also curates the Higher Ed Summits, EDS and Reimagine Education conference at QS Quacquarelli Symonds. He has been writing on the international higher ed sector for over a decade. In 2019, he was recognised as the Universities Australia Higher Education Journalist of the Year in 2019 at the National Press Club of Australia, and won the International Education Association of Australia award for Excellence in Professional Commentary in 2018.