2026 Research Cycle
PLEASE NOTE: for the upcoming 2026 research cycle institutions can now submit contacts for the Academic and Employer surveys.
Submission window 1: 29 November 2024
Submission window 2: 30 November 2024 – 31 January 2025
Contacts submitted during Submission window 1 will be contacted for feedback from December 2024.
Introduction
QS invites institutions to supply both academic and employer contacts who will be sent the relevant reputational survey as part of our research process.
The results of these surveys are an integral part of QS's approach to evaluating performance in the university sector.
We encourage universities to use our contact list submission process outlined below. This allows institutions a greater degree of control over the curation of their network.
Academic contacts CANNOT vote for their own institution.
Submitting Your Contacts
We can accept contacts by the following methods:
- Contact Lists - CSV file format, uploaded to our QS HUB platform.
- Survey Sign-Up Facility - individuals who consent provide their details themselves.
For each survey you submit for (Academic or Employer) you can only choose one of the above methods.
You must signal to the research team whether you will use contact list submissions or sign-up facilities for each group of contacts.
Consent
For Data Protection reasons you must seek consent from potential respondents before adding them to submission lists or sharing the Survey Sign-Up Facility.
To seek consent you must the email template below. This email template should be sent on its own and not accompany any other communication from the university. They should at no point feel coerced into participating or being influenced by your institution.
Contact Lists
To send contacts via CSV file you must use the pre-defined CSV templates found below.
When complete the file should be uploaded to the QS HUB platform.
If you do not have access to QS HUB please contact our Institution Support Team.
For full guidelines on how to fill and submit your CSV files, please visit: Guidelines for QS Global Academic and Employer Survey.
Guidelines
- Limited to 400 contacts per survey (see below).
- You must use the pre-defined CSV templates linked above to upload your lists to QS HUB.
- Submitted email addresses must use English characters only.
- You must seek your contacts' consent using the Consent Emails Templates.
Survey Sign-Up Facility
Our Survey Sign-Up Facility allows individuals who consent to provide us with their own details.
The survey sign-up facilities for each survey can be found within the consent emails and below:
Guidelines
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You can contact any number of individuals to access the sign-up facility. However, the number of individual contacts from each list will be capped at 400.
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QS will send a notification once an institution exceeds 350 responses, at which point you should cease contacting further participants.
- You must seek your contacts' consent using the Consent Emails Templates.
Timeframe
Submission window 1: 29 November 2024
Submission window 2: 30 November 2024 – 31 January 2025
Contacts submitted during Submission window 1 will be contacted for feedback from December 2024.
If an institution misses the data collection deadline for submitting their lists, or sends out links to the sign-up facility too late, QS cannot guarantee that their contacts will receive the survey in time to be able to reply before the cut-off date for analysis.
Survey responses received after the deadline will be counted in the following year’s analysis.
Number of Contacts
Institutions may submit up to 400 contacts for each of our reputation surveys - Academic and Employer.
- Academic Survey - 400 contacts
- Employer Survey - 400 contacts
Business Schools
Institutions that participate in the business school rankings may submit an additional 400 contacts for each survey.
- Academic Survey - 400 contacts
- Employer Survey - 400 contacts
These contacts will only feed into the analysis for the relevant business school rankings, and not back into our wider rankings suite.
Contacts provided in this list should be related to Graduate Management Education and business-related disciplines.
Selection of Contacts
QS will use your contact list or contacts received via the sign-up facilities for two years – the year of submission and one additional year. Therefore, you do not need to resend us contacts sent during the previous research cycle.
Academic Survey
- Contacts should have knowledge of academic excellence in a higher education institution (HEI).
- Contacts should be involved in teaching and/or research, including academics, research or library staff.
- Do not submit "info@" or other generic email addresses.
- Do not submit job title information if you cannot verify it.
Employer Survey
- You can submit anyone involved with hiring decisions at a an organisation (private or public).
- You can submit multiple people at one company.
- Do not submit individuals from a higher education institution (HEI) or research institute).
- Do not submit "info@" or other generic email addresses.
- Do not submit job title information if you cannot verify it.
Sanctions
A university found to be in breach of QS’ guidelines by seeming to coach responses for the institution from contacts (for example by deviating from the prescribed templates without seeking guidance and permission from QS) or engaging in another unethical practice may be subject to sanctions.
These range from exclusion from the rankings for a cycle, the removal of that year’s nominations or other measures which QS deem reasonable.
We have had to implement the use of prescribed email communication templates to ensure compliance with data protection legislation and to ensure transparency and neutrality in how universities approach contacts for our reputational surveys.