Quacquarelli Symonds
{{Short description|British analytics company}}
Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) is a higher education analyst and a for-profit services provider headquartered in London with offices in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.{{cite web|title=About us|url=http://www.qs.com/about-us/|website=Quacquarelli Symonds}}
History
The company was founded by Nunzio Quacquarelli in 1990 to provide information and advice to students looking to study abroad. It then expanded to include a wider range of higher education-focused products and services before partnering with Times Higher Education (THE) in 2004 to create the THE-QS World University Rankings.{{cite web|title=Malaysia's R&D Investment Paying off with Higher Research Productivity and Improved University Ranking|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2019-11-05/malaysia-s-r-d-investment-paying-off-with-higher-research-productivity-and-improved-university-ranking|website=Bloomberg|date = 5 November 2019}}
In 2009, the company acquired GmbH Unisolutions, a supplier of software to support higher education institutions in the area of internationalisation, especially with managing participation in Erasmus programmes. On 5 October 2017, QS Quacquarelli Symonds acquired Hobsons Solutions, the international division of Hobsons, Inc.{{cite web|last1=Baker|first1=Amy|title=QS acquires Hobsons Solutions in major merger|url=https://thepienews.com/news/qs-acquires-hobsons-solutions-major-merger/|website=The PIE News|access-date=8 March 2018}} On 3 November 2021, QS acquired the web-based counselling and application platform StudentApply.{{Cite web|url=https://thepienews.com/news/qs-acquires-studentapply-as-it-enters-agency-enrolment-space/|title=QS acquires StudentApply as it enters end-to-end enrolment space|date=11 March 2021|website=thepienews.com|publisher=The Pie News|access-date=19 February 2024}} In 2024, QS acquired the career navigation platform 1Mentor. {{Cite web|url=https://thepienews.com/news/qs-acquires-career-navigation-platform-1mentor/|title=QS acquires career navigation platform|date=1 January 2024|website=thepienews.com|publisher=The Pie News|access-date=19 February 2024}}
In 2022, the firm's founder, Nunzio Quacquarelli, was appointed as the company's president. Jessica Turner serves as the company's chief executive officer, responsible for the firm's operations and strategy.{{cite web |title=Introducing our new CEO |url=https://www.qs.com/introducing-our-new-ceo/ |website=QS.com |date=27 September 2022 |publisher=QS}}
For 2023, the firm reported turnover of £50.5 million.{{Cite web |title=Here's what I just found on pomanda.com - qs-quacquarellisymonds-limited |url=https://pomanda.com/company/02563879/qs-quacquarellisymonds-limited |access-date=2024-12-03 |website=pomanda.com |language=en}}
Rankings
{{Main|QS World University Rankings}}
The QS World University Rankings is a portfolio of university rankings. Its first edition was published in collaboration with Times Higher Education (THE) magazine as Times Higher Education–QS World University Rankings, inaugurated in 2004 to provide an independent source of comparative data about university performance. In 2009, the two organizations parted ways to produce independent university rankings, the QS World University Rankings and THE World University Rankings.
The rankings use university reputation according to surveys of academics and employers, together with proxies such as proportion of international students an numbers of citations per publication to rank universities. The rankings have been criticized for its over-reliance on subjective indicators and reputation surveys, which tend to form a feedback loop.{{Cite web |last=Redden |first=Elizabeth |title=Scrutiny of QS Rankings |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/29/methodology-qs-rankings-comes-under-scrutiny |access-date=2024-12-03 |website=Inside Higher Ed |language=en}}