Methodology: Data Collection

The data collection process for an exercise like this is challenging and complex. QS has five years experience chasing down data from institutions, verifying its accuracy and extrapolating to fill gaps where appropriate. In most cases, institutions are given the opportunity to submit their own data. If they don’t take that opportunity then QS will do everything possible to track the data from alternate sources. Where the data is available from one source, QS will do everything possible to verify the data.

Potential data sources are:

• Direct from institution – data collected from direct dialogue with institutions, anomalous data initiates a dialogue during which an institution will be asked to explain any strange results or high contrasts from the year before
• Central statistics source – data collected from a central statistics agency or government source
• Website data – preferably only used for verification, data published on the institutions own website
• Previous year – data collected in previous years is often used to check for any big swings
• Third party source – some independent websites often carry data on institutions that can be used for guidance
• Smart average – using any data available for the given institution, combined with average scores for the territory or region a “smart average” is increasingly infrequently used to fill gaps