Leading academics from across the world are being invited to help Times Higher Education develop unique new insights into the global teaching and research landscape by highlighting the most prestigious institutions in their field.
THE has launched its 2017 Academic Reputation Survey, which asks published scholars to outline which universities they perceive to be the best for teaching and research in their specialist discipline.
Each respondent is asked to identify institutions worldwide and in their own country and will be representing many of their peers from their fields and their nation.
The survey results will make up two of the 13 performance indicators used to create the THE World University Rankings 2017-18, and related regional rankings, and will form the basis of the separate THE World Reputation Rankings.
For each survey completed, THE will donate £1 to Unicef, up to a total value of £10,000. The United Nations charity provides assistance to children and mothers in developing countries.
The survey, run in partnership with Elsevier, is invitation-only to ensure a representative statistical sample. It is available in 15 languages, and is distributed using United Nations data on the geographical distribution of researchers globally, to ensure a fair and balanced response. Universities cannot nominate respondents and individuals are not able to volunteer to take part.
THE rankings editor Phil Baty said that although the data will be based purely on subjective judgement it will provide “rich and unique insights into the global teaching and research landscape”.
“The survey relies on those who are best placed to understand excellence in teaching and research – academics themselves,” he said.
“So we urge anyone who receives an email from us to spend 10 to 15 minutes lending their expert opinion and we thank all respondents in advance for helping us to develop a unique, rich and valuable resource.”
Look out for an email from timeshighereducation@surveys.elsevier.com “Your invitation to influence the outcome of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings”.
