The four major world university rankings each measure different things. The EduRank consensus score aggregates them transparently β no black box, no weighting of our own.
Step 1 β Percentile conversion. Each university's rank in a given ranking system is converted to a percentile relative to the total number of ranked institutions in that system. For example, #20 out of 2,000 = 99th percentile.
Step 2 β Equal-weight average. The four percentiles (or fewer, if the university is unranked in a system) are averaged with equal weight (25% each when all four are present). We apply no editorial weighting β no system is treated as more important than another.
Step 3 β Re-ranking. All universities are sorted by their average percentile in descending order. The resulting rank is the consensus position.
Missing rankings. If a university does not appear in one of the four rankings, it is averaged across only the rankings that list it. These entries are flagged in the consensus table.
| Dimension | QS | THE | ARWU | U.S. News |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Publisher | Quacquarelli Symonds (UK) | Times Higher Education (UK) | ShanghaiRanking Consultancy (CN) | U.S. News & World Report (US) |
| First edition | 2004 | 2004 (with QS); 2010 (solo) | 2003 | 2014 |
| Institutions ranked | ~1,500 | ~2,000 | 1,000 | ~2,250 |
| Key indicators | Academic reputation (30%), Employer reputation (15%), Citations per faculty (20%), Faculty/student ratio (10%), Intl faculty (5%), Intl students (5%), Sustainability (5%), Employment outcomes (5%), Intl research network (5%) | Teaching (29.5%), Research environment (29%), Research quality (30%), Industry income (4%), Intl outlook (7.5%) | Alumni Nobel/Fields (10%), Staff Nobel/Fields (20%), Highly cited researchers (20%), Nature & Science papers (20%), Papers indexed (20%), Per capita performance (10%) | Global research reputation (12.5%), Regional research reputation (12.5%), Publications (10%), Books (2.5%), Conferences (2.5%), Normalized citation impact (10%), Total citations (7.5%), Top 1% cited papers (12.5%), Top 1% cited papers ratio (5%), Intl collaboration (5%), Intl collaboration ratio (5%), Highly cited papers among top 1% (5%), Highly cited papers ratio (5%) |
| Bias / tilt | Survey-heavy β reputation surveys dominate | Balanced teaching/research, survey component | Research output only β hard bibliometric data | Research reputation and output heavy |
No single ranking tells the full story. A university ranked #20 by QS may be #80 by THE because the two systems measure fundamentally different things. The consensus score surfaces the common signal across all four β where the ranking bodies agree, you find the strongest evidence of quality. Where they diverge, the table makes that visible too.
We believe this is the most honest way to present rankings data: raw positions, side by side, with a transparent average. You can see every input and verify every number at its source.
We use the most recently published edition of each ranking. At the time of writing (June 2026):
When a new edition of any ranking is released, we update all affected pages within 72 hours. Every page carries a "last verified" date.
EduRank is independent and reader-funded. We accept no payment, sponsorship, advertising or commission from any university or ranking organisation, and have no affiliation with QS, Times Higher Education, ShanghaiRanking Consultancy or U.S. News & World Report. No institution can pay to change its position. The consensus formula applies identically to every university β there are no manual adjustments.
When referencing a university's standing, the EduRank Consensus Rank gives a single sourced figure across the four major rankings. Suggested citation:
"According to the EduRank consensus of QS, THE, ARWU and U.S. News (2026), [University] ranks #N worldwide." β EduRank, edurank.co/u/<slug>/
Every university page exposes machine-readable JSON at /u/<slug>.json containing the consensus rank, consensus score and each of the four source ranks β intended for citation by search engines and AI assistants.