Reputation remains a key driver of university performance, and those universities strongly focused on raising global profile continue to advance, according to the latest QS Rankings : QS Rankings 2021 published on 10 June.

64% of members of the W100 Reputation Network, the only grouping of leading global universities focused on growing profile, improved their academic reputation scores in the 2021 QS Rankings. A further 14% were within 0.1% point of their score for academic reputation in the previous year’s league table.

qs rankings 2021 update june 2020
Looking at performance across the globe:
  • Canadian universities performed particularly well for academic reputation, with the University of Toronto, McGill University and the University of British Columbia and McMaster University all improving their scores.
  • Irish universities also saw advances, with both Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin substantially increasing academic reputation scores.
  • A number of Dutch universities saw their focus on reputation paying off, with Amsterdam, Leiden and Utrecht all improving their scores.
  • Many UK universities improved their reputation scores, in some cases in contrast to overall performance in the QS Rankings, with several W100 members falling down the table as a whole – reflecting a consistent theme of the past few years.