Methodology: Academic Peer Review 

The Academic Peer Review remains a major component of the QS.com Asian University Rankings carrying a weighting of 30%. It is the component that attracts the greatest interest and the greatest scrutiny and that which sets this ranking most clearly apart from any other.

The results are based on the responses to a survey distributed worldwide both to previous respondents and subscribers to two key databases: The World Scientific (www.worldscientific.com) from which 180,000 email addresses are drawn and the International Book Information Service (IBIS) a service from Mardev (www.mardev.com).

The scores that contribute 30% to the overall score are compiled from five sets of results in the following five subject areas:

• Arts & Humanities
• Engineering & IT
• Life Sciences & Biomedicine
• Natural Sciences
• Social Sciences

Respondents are not permitted to select their own institution.

The questions respondents are asked regarding universities inside their own country and outside are separated. These are recombined after the responses are in using methods designed to reduce any response bias by country.

The five subject areas are combined with equal weighting to form the overall score.