06/02/2007 | THE - QS World University Rankings, Background/Methodology, 2006 Results, Academic Peer Review

2006 Peer Review Response Analysis

By: Ben Sowter

The Peer Review currently forms 40% of the weightings applied by the Times Higher Education Supplement to the various indicators included in the THES - QS World University Rankings. This article outlines the breakdown of the 3,703 respondents included in the Peer Review in the 2006 results.

THES - QS World University Rankings - Peer Review

On the first page of the peer review survey, respondents are asked to identify their broad faculty area of knowledge from five areas. Respondents are able to nominate more than one faculty area. The responses can be broken down as follows:

Faculty AreaRespondents
All Faculty Areas46
Arts & Humanities369
Engineering & IT1431
Life Sciences & Biomedicine499
Natural Sciences1705
Social Sciences754


Incidentally, a full explanation of how the Peer Review is compiled and how the reviewers are sourced is available here... THES - QS World University Rankings Methodology: The Peer Review.

Respondents are also asked to identify their knowledge by region. The list of institutions from which they can select within each subject area is influenced by their response to this question. Again, respondents are permitted to identify more than one region of knowledge.

RegionRespondents
Americas1972
Asia, Australia & New Zealand1774
Europe, Middle East & Africa2114


Cross-referencing these two questions yields the following breakdown by both region and subject area:

Faculty AreaRegionRespondents
All Faculty AreasAmericas30
Arts & HumanitiesAmericas197
Engineering & ITAmericas738
Life Sciences & BiomedicineAmericas182
Natural SciencesAmericas614
Social SciencesAmericas211
All Faculty AreasAsia, Australia & New Zealand32
Arts & HumanitiesAsia, Australia & New Zealand149
Engineering & ITAsia, Australia & New Zealand740
Life Sciences & BiomedicineAsia, Australia & New Zealand169
Natural SciencesAsia, Australia & New Zealand460
Social SciencesAsia, Australia & New Zealand224
All Faculty AreasEurope, Middle East & Africa30
Arts & HumanitiesEurope, Middle East & Africa237
Engineering & ITEurope, Middle East & Africa764
Life Sciences & BiomedicineEurope, Middle East & Africa199
Natural SciencesEurope, Middle East & Africa650
Social SciencesEurope, Middle East & Africa234


There has also been much interest as to the precise location of responding peers... in terms of the institutions that they represent. Whilst regional weightings are based on the individual knowledge specification above, but in most cases these will reflect the geographical location (and experience) of respondents.

CountryRespondents
United States532
United Kingdom378
India256
Australia191
Canada153
Italy114
Malaysia112
Germany103
Indonesia93
Singapore92
China76
Spain72
France56
Japan53
Mexico51
Turkey49
Switzerland45
Sweden44
Brazil43
Netherlands43
Belgium39
Thailand37
Israel36
Portugal35
Argentina33
Greece32
Iran31
Ireland31
Denmark30
Austria29
Poland29
Romania29
Taiwan29
South Africa27
South Korea27
Colombia26
Hong Kong25
New Zealand25
Russia24
Pakistan23
Finland23
Nigeria20
Other266

In total there were responses from 101 countries.



This page can found at: http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/results/2006/peer_review_response/worlduniversityrankings/results/2006/peer_review_response/