The Academic Peer Review is the centrepiece of the THE - QS World University Rankings carrying a weighting of 40%. 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 online survey can be previewed on the following link, but it is important to know that for a genuine respondent the survey is responsive to their early responses and only appropriate questions are asked.

Click here to preview Academic Peer Review Survey

The scores that contribute 40% 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

   

For each subject area a regional weigthing is applied to ensure equal representation from our 3 "super regions" of Americas; Europe, Middle East & Africa and Asia Pacific.

In 2007 for the first time, respondents were prevented from selecting their own institution.

In 2008 the questions respondents are asked regarding universities inside their own country and outside were 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.

Ultimately the Academic Peer Review results in over 100,000 and climbing individual data points, that we use to evaluate universities for the Times Higher - QS World University Rankings.