THE rankings experts host masterclass, analyzing regional performances and trends

On 23 October 2024, the staff of the International Collaboration Department at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute attended a complimentary Masterclass hosted by experts from Times Higher Education (THE). The session, titled “THE’s World University Rankings 2025 edition – Europe,” provided a detailed exploration of regional performances and emerging trends.

Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2025 are the largest in its history, with 2,860 universities from over 133 countries around the world submitting data: a celebration of the world’s leading research-intensive universities.

During the insightful Masterclass, the experts analyzed the recent WUR 2025 results, as well as explored regional performances and year-on-year trends.

This free session covered:
– Methodology overview
– Analysis of the results, regional performances and year-on-year trends
– Participating in THE’s WUR 2026 edition and Impact Rankings
– Q&A

Presentations were delivered by David Watkins (pictured left), Managing Director at Data Times Higher Education, and Ishan Cader (pictured right), Director of Consultancy at Times Higher Education.

David Watkins shared that their Global Academic Reputation Survey is distributed to academics annually, running from November 1 to January 31. Last year saw the introduction of self voting, now limited to a maximum of 10% of an institution’s votes.

He emphasized the enhanced depth of their analysis, noting that new in-house survey attracts more than five times as many votes as the previous out-sourced survey. This, he remarked, allows for richer representation and deeper insight into respondents.

According to Mr. Watkins, the prominence of Asia’s academic reputation is on the rise, while Europe, although still performing above the world average and maintaining strong international credentials, has begun to lose its competitive edge. Europe’s standing has declined, with engineering programs and income showing downward trends.

He further noted that THE no longer considers discontinued journals in their analysis and has adopted more sophisticated approaches regarding subject balance. He mentioned the importance of patent transfer from universities to industries, pointing out that universities’ role in supporting national economies through technology transfer deserves greater recognition — a factor THE plans to incorporate into future evaluations.

He pointed out that in the World University Rankings 2025 edition, Physical Sciences was the most frequently ranked subject across Europe where it was ranked for 456 universities, while Law was the least frequently ranked subject with just 202 universities ranked.

Ishan Cader, in his presentation, underscored THE’s commitment to supporting universities in improving their performance. His team offers data-driven solutions and in-depth analyses of each of the metric scores benchmarked against competitors. In addition to helping institutions develop key performance indicators (KPIs) aligned with strategic goals, he highlighted the development and delivery of tailored KPI Toolkits.

Mr. Cader explained how their team has developed a unique data tool and a four-phased brand framework, optimized over time. He emphasized the extensive work THE does with universities, helping them elevate their international profiles and design programs that effectively attract students.