Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) is a higher education analyst and a for-profit services provider headquartered in London with offices in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.[1]
The company was founded by Nunzio Quacquarelli in 1990 to provide information and advice to students looking to study abroad. It then expanded to include a wider range of higher education-focused products and services before partnering with THE in 2004 to create the THE-QS World University Rankings.[2]
In 2009, the company acquired GmbH Unisolutions, a supplier of software solutions to support higher education institutions in the area of internationalisation, especially with managing participation in Erasmus programmes. On 5 October 2017, QS Quacquarelli Symonds acquired Hobsons Solutions, the international division of Hobsons, Inc.[3] On 3 November 2021, QS acquired the web-based counselling and application platform StudentApply.[4] In 2024, QS acquired the career navigation platform 1Mentor. [5]
In 2022, the firm's founder, Nunzio Quacquarelli, was appointed as the company's president. Jessica Turner serves as the company's chief executive officer, responsible for the firm's operations and strategy.[6]
QS World University Rankings is a portfolio of comparative university rankings. Its first edition was published in collaboration with Times Higher Education (THE) magazine as Times Higher Education–QS World University Rankings, inaugurated in 2004 to provide an independent source of comparative data about university performance. In 2009, the two organizations parted ways to produce independent university rankings, the QS World University Rankings and THE World University Rankings.
