Global university rankings have risen in prominence over the last decade and their importance and influence will likely grow in the future. Starting with the Times Higher Education-Quacquarelli Symonds (better known as the THES-QS) World University Rankings in 2004, global university rankings of various sorts have proliferated to the scale of a small cottage industry. They have evolved to become such important measures of institutional quality and reputation in the public sphere that policymakers in Malaysia are now using ranking performance as improvement targets for our public universities. According to the Malaysian Education Blueprint (Higher Education) 2015-2025, the Ministry of Higher Education “aims to place one university in Asia’s Top 25, two in the Global Top 100 and four in the Global Top 200” by 2025, as measured by the QS World University Rankings.
