Released today [27 June], the rankings found Bristol to be the 55th best university in the world, out of 2,963 universities surveyed.
This is the second year running that Bristol has climbed in QS’ highly regarded rankings, and comes just weeks after the Complete University Guide 2024 placed 30 of its subjects in the top ten of UK universities.
QS also ranked Bristol as the 9th best university in the UK (no change on last year).
Professor Evelyn Welch, the University’s Vice-Chancellor and President, said: “I am pleased to see Bristol recognised as an outstanding global university. Moving up in QS’ global rankings is no small achievement given an expanding field of impressive and ambitious higher education institutions around the world.
“I would like to thank our amazing staff and students who have made this possible. It is their hard work, creativity and connectivity that makes this University one of the best places in the world to study and work.”
To compile the rankings, QS gathered data from 144,000 academics and 98,000 employers around the world.
QS judged the universities on 10 metrics, including three new ones: Sustainability, Employment Outcomes and International Research Network.
The other metrics were Academic Reputation, Citations per Faculty (in academic papers), Employer Reputation, Faculty to Student Ratio, International Faculty (the number of international staff) and International Students (the number of international students).
Bristol scored particularly highly in the Academic Reputation category, based on which universities global academics rate highly, and the Employer Reputation category, based on global employers’ perception of which universities are providing “job-ready graduates”.
In March, 40 subjects offered at the University of Bristol placed in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023, which surveyed 1,597 of the world’s best universities.
In late 2022, Bristol rose 16 places in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2023.