Boosting our QS world rankings

News

Posted on Tuesday 2 September 2025

Our QS league tables task and finish group has made significant progress in delivering an uplift in our QS rankings over the last year - and we’re looking to build even more momentum.

York climbed 15 places in the latest QS World University rankings, following a concerted effort to maximise our submission and to improve the reach of our contacts.

The QS Academic and Employer Reputation Surveys contribute 45% towards our overall ranking.

The QS World University Rankings represent an excellent opportunity for York to showcase its academic excellence and strong graduate employment record.

The rankings are important for the University’s reputation and are key to successful international student recruitment.

QS Academic Reputation Survey

To ensure we are doing all we can to improve York’s Academic Reputation score, we are asking all academics to provide two new international academic contacts.

Why new? QS aggregates nominations over five years, and duplicate contacts within this period only count once.
Why international? International nominations are weighted at 85%, compared to domestic nominations at just 15%.
Check your contacts are new and submit your contacts to us.

These academic contacts can then be supplied to QS to take part in this survey, and hopefully nominate York, improving our standing in the world rankings.

An ‘academic contact’ is someone who has knowledge of academic excellence in a higher education institution (HEI) and is involved in teaching and/or research, including academics, research and library staff.

QS Employer Reputation Survey

We need your help to reach out to employer contacts to secure their consent for the survey.

Please reach out to your employer contacts, asking them for consent for their details to be supplied to QS to take part in this survey.
An 'employer contact' is anyone involved in hiring decisions at an organisation (excluding HEIs).
You are welcome to use the email template to contact them directly.
Once you’ve emailed your contacts, please complete this feedback form.

We can contact multiple people at one organisation. Unlike the academic reputation survey there is no difference in weighting between UK/international contacts.

Further information

For more information, there are Academic Survey and Employer Survey slide decks, as well as FAQs.

Our internal deadline for submitting contacts to Strategic Insight and Analysis for both surveys is Tuesday 30 September. The consent form remains open until Friday 31 October.