Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) is a British company specialising in education and study abroad. The company was founded in 1990 by Nunzio Quacquarelli. Today, QS has over 250 employees and operates globally from offices in London (head office in Hampstead, North London); New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C., United States; Paris, France; Singapore; Stuttgart, Germany; Sydney, Australia; Shanghai, China; Johannesburg, South Africa; Alicante, Spain and Mumbai, India. QS provides services for undergraduates, graduates, Masters, Ph.D., MBA, and Executive MBA candidates. It offers publications and events to broaden the scope of study abroad. QS runs events and produces guides for postgraduates across 35 countries.
1988–90: QS Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd was founded as a student initiative whilst Nunzio Quacquarelli was completing his MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
1990: TopMBA Career Guide and TopMBA International MBA Recruitment and Salary Research launched.
1995: The first QS World MBA Tour was held in just two cities, London and Paris. Today, the tour travels to over 70 cities across five continents.
1996: QS TopMBA Global Recruiters Top 100 Business Schools, an alternative to business school rankings, providing a list of business schools currently preferred by the most international MBA recruiters. In 2009, the name of this report changed to "QS Global 200 Business Schools 2009: The Employers' Choice".
1998: QS TopMBA.com Applicants Research - a survey into the mindset and aspirations of MBA applicants.
2001
QS World Grad School Tour was launched; today, the tour visits over 40 cities in more than 30 countries.
QS acquired Global Workplace, a network for professionals and employers looking to connect with alumni from international business schools.
2002: QS Career Forums - a program of recruitment and career development events
2004: THE-QS World University Rankings launched in collaboration with the Times Higher Education
2005
Scorecard - an online search and personal ranking tool of business schools worldwide
QS APPLE - The Asia Pacific Professional Leaders in Education annual conference and exhibition for international educators in Asia, Europe, America and Australasia.
QS Education Trust - a non-profit trust company providing scholarships for international study to candidates each year.
2005-2006: QS TopApply - a specialized CRM system was launched that integrates in with business schools' internal application and candidate management processes.
2007: QS TopInternships – a community website for helping first degree and Masters students locate internships, with an initial focus on English speaking countries around the world.
2008: QS Asian University Rankings launch announced in partnership with South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper
2009
TopUniversities & World of Study Tour launches in London serving high school students and young professionals looking to emigrate through an international degree or vocational qualification.
QS acquired German software company unisolution, a European supplier of software solutions and services for institutions of higher education in the area of internationalization.
2012: QS TopMBA Career Guide was launched in the Chinese language.
QS has published various university rankings.
At first, it had cooperated with the Times Higher Education to release annual world university rankings, the THE-QS World University Rankings, since 2004 and was the data provider of the rankings. However, it ended its partnership with Times after the release of their 2009 rankings and both have worked out their own rankings afterward with QS using the same methodology while Times which has then cooperated with Thomson Reuters using an adjusted one. Now, the rankings published by QS are known as the QS World University Rankings.
Generally, the QS World University Rankings is regarded as one of the three most influential university rankings in the world, along with the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities.
