MIT Outshines Stanford and Cambridge in First Ever QS World University Rankings(R) for Technical Subjects

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Apr 04, 2011, 05:30 ET

LONDON, April 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- MIT Tops all Five Rankings: Computer Sciences; Chemical; Civil; Electrical; Mechanical Engineering.

- Stanford and Cambridge Divide Second Places

- 30 Subjects to be Ranked in Coming Weeks on http://www.topuniversities.com Along With a Personalised Ranking Tool to Help Students Make the Right Choice

- Best-Performing Universities in Asia: NUS and Tokyo; India: IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay; China: Tsinghua and Peking; Australia: Melbourne; Continental Europe: ETH Zurich; Canada: Toronto; Latin America: UNAM and Universidad de Buenos Aires

The first ever QS World University Rankings(R) by Subject shows MIT to be the world's leading university in computer science and four areas of engineering, based on employer reputation, academic reputation and research quality.

Over 50,000,000 people have viewed QS World University Rankings(R) in the past 12 months and there has been overwhelming demand for more detailed subject rankings incorporating a unique combination of employability and research quality metrics. The QS methodology has been tailored to each subject, in consultation with the QS Global Academic Advisory Board.

"QS World University Rankings(R) use of academic and employer review data is a real market differentiator," states Paul Thurman, a leading data analyst and professor at Columbia University in New York and a member of the Advisory Board; "not only because of the sample sizes, which are industry-leading, but because of the way QS takes the data from the surveys and is able to extract meaningful results and interpretations."

"The new QS World University Rankings(R) by Subject respond to a need for comparative data at a more granular level," says Ben Sowter, Head of QS Intelligence Unit, which produces the rankings. "In many countries students are being charged more than ever before for their degrees. So assessing the potential career outcomes of one's study choice is becoming increasingly important. QS rankings are unique in taking on board the views of global employers."

"It is a great development to see programme rankings as a refinement of the usual university rankings," says Sej Butler, EMEA Recruitment Manager, IBM. "This will help students and employers look to those courses in more detail within a wider context."

The news that the opinions of employers do not always correlate with those of academics will raise eyebrows among prospective students. The results are published in separate data columns on http://www.topuniversities.com, allowing users to personally rank according to each indicator.

SOURCE QS Quacquarelli Symonds