Times Higher Education

The first issue of the Times Higher Education Supplement was published in October 1971.⁠[1]

It was launched to pre-empt Senate, a paper planned by the publisher of Nature; founding editor Brian MacArthur, formerly education correspondent of The Times, edited it for five years.⁠[2]

Later editors were, in turn, Peter Scott, Auriol Stevens (from 1992), John O’Leary and Gerard Kelly.⁠[2]

After the Thomson CorporationThomson ReutersThomson Reuters (Toronto Stock Exchange and Nasdaq symbol TRI) is a content and technology company headquartered in Toronto, Canada, that provides information, software, and AI products to professional fields including legal, tax, accounting, compliance, government, and media, and owns the news agency Reuters. The company was formed after The Thomson Corporation acquired Reuters Group PLC in 2008, and Woodbridge, the Thomson family’s private investment company, is its controlling shareholder.Open the full entry put Times Newspapers up for sale in 1981, the supplement passed to Rupert MurdochRupert MurdochRupert Murdoch is a media entrepreneur, chairman emeritus of News Corp and Fox Corporation, and an investor awarded restitution in the Theranos case.Open the full entry, under whom it stayed until 2005.⁠[2]

On January 14, 1985, the private limited company Alnery No.304 Limited was incorporated; in December that year it was renamed Times Higher Education Supplement Limited (The).⁠[3]

In 2004 THE founded its World University Rankings, which emphasise universities’ research mission.⁠[4]

In October 2005 News International agreed to sell TSL Education, which the private equity firm Exponent bought for £235 million; TSL Education published The TES, the Times Higher Education Supplement and Nursery World. Bernard Gray replaced James MacManus as chief executive of TSL Education, and Stuart Wallis became chairman.⁠[5]

Emap and Guardian Media Group had also bid; after the deal News International continued to print and distribute the two supplements. It was Murdoch’s first sale of any newspaper interests.⁠[6]

In May 2007 Charterhouse Capital Partners acquired TSL Education from Exponent for an undisclosed price.⁠[7]

In 2008 the paper became a magazine.⁠[2]

That year Ann Mroz became editor, serving until 2012.⁠[1]

In October 2009 THE ended its rankings partnership with the company QS and set out to develop a new world rankings methodology; in November it named Thomson Reuters as its new rankings partner, which had launched a survey on the weaknesses of existing ranking systems.⁠[8]

Under the agreement Thomson Reuters would supply all ranking data from 2010; THE planned to publish the top 200 universities, with separate subject rankings, in autumn 2010, and sought views on its old 2004–2009 methodology.⁠[9]

The 2010–2011 World University Rankings listed 200 universities, with data powered by Thomson Reuters.⁠[10]

John Gill, who joined THE in 2007, became editor in 2012 and also held the post of chief content officer.⁠[11]

On July 8, 2013, TPG announced it was buying TSL Education from Charterhouse; the price was not disclosed, with estimates of about £400 million ($600 million). TPG thereby became the company’s fourth owner.⁠[12]

The share purchase agreement was signed on July 5 and the deal closed on August 5; TSL’s publications then included the Times Educational Supplement and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.⁠[13]

In 2014 Trevor Barratt became THE’s chief executive.⁠[14]

The 2015–2016 rankings methodology published by THE switched to Elsevier as bibliometric data supplier, drawing citations from the 23,000 academic journals indexed by Scopus; it also removed 649 papers with more than 1,000 authors and advised against direct comparisons with previous years.⁠[15]

The 2016–2017 World University Rankings listed 980 universities.⁠[16]

From 2017 THE published US college rankings with The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal is a U.S. news publication founded in 1889, with a focus on business, finance and economics. It is published by Dow Jones, part of News Corp.Open the full entry (until 2022) and Japan university rankings with Benesse (until 2025); both have been discontinued.⁠[4]

On March 14, 2018, THEWUR Limited was incorporated; on August 14 that year it was renamed THE World Universities Insights Limited, registered for other information service activities.⁠[17]

On February 28, 2019, TPG completed the sale of THE to Inflexion Private Equity, with THE carved out of TES Global as an independent entity; in January 2019 TPG had sold TES Global to Providence Equity Partners.⁠[18]

THE thereby became a stand-alone business for the first time. Barratt said the sale secured THE’s “continued independence”; Inflexion planned to expand its digital offering and its international business, particularly in the US and Asia.⁠[14]

At the time THE’s data team analysed more than nine million data points on 3,500 institutions for its 2019 rankings; its website drew more than 30 million unique visitors a year, and it employed more than 100 people in offices in the UK, the US, Australia, China and Singapore.⁠[19]

In April 2019 THE launched the Impact Rankings (now the Sustainability Impact Ratings), which assess universities against the UN Sustainable Development Goals.⁠[4]

On May 1, 2020, Paul Howarth was appointed a director of THE World Universities Insights Limited, and Trevor Barratt stepped down as a director the same day.⁠[20]

In 2021 THE marked its 50th anniversary.⁠[21]

On June 8, 2021, Times Higher Education Supplement Limited (The), by then a non-trading company, was dissolved.⁠[3]

THE announced it had acquired the US higher education news provider Inside Higher Ed, founded by Scott Jaschik and Doug Lederman in 2004, which would continue to operate independently under its existing brand. Chief executive Paul Howarth called Inside Higher Ed “an ideal partner.”⁠[22]

The fee was not disclosed; together the two reach more than 50 million unique users a year. THE had earlier moved into study abroad with its THE Student platform and partnerships with ApplyBoard and Studyportals.⁠[21]

THE completed its acquisition of dataHE, a provider of data analysis for UK universities founded by Mark Corver and Andrew Hargreaves, both formerly senior figures at UCAS; it worked with more than 60 higher education institutions.⁠[23]

THE completed its acquisition of Poets&Quants, a news and resources site for prospective graduate business students, and its parent company C-Change Media; Poets&Quants was founded in 2010 by John Byrne, a former executive editor of Business Week.⁠[24]

THE published the methodology for the 20th edition of its World University Rankings (the 2024 edition): indicators rose from 13 to 18, with three new research quality measures and a patents metric, and the international metrics began to account for country population.⁠[25]

The University of Zurich announced it would stop providing data to the THE World University Rankings. The university said the ranking “is not able to reflect the wide range of activities in teaching and research undertaken by universities,” as rankings reduce indicators to a score and focus on quantitative criteria.⁠[26]

That day’s issue was THE’s final print magazine, after which it moved to digital formats. Editor John Gill wrote that the shift to digital was “reflecting where audiences are to be found.”⁠[1]

On February 24, 2025, Gill and Christopher Verdin were appointed directors of THE World Universities Insights Limited, and Howarth stepped down as a director the same day.⁠[20]

On March 3, 2025, THE announced Gill’s appointment as chief executive, succeeding Paul Howarth, who had held the post since 2020, and said a new editor would be appointed.⁠[11]

THE published the Sustainability Impact Ratings 2026, with the University of Manchester ranked first.⁠[27]

THE describes its mission as being the definitive source of data, insight and expertise on higher education worldwide, with a business built on 10 million data points from more than 7,000 institutions in 171 countries; since 2020 it has acquired The Knowledge Partnership, Inside Higher Ed, BMI, dataHE, Poets&Quants and EWF, and THE Student has 14 million annual visitors.⁠[28]

The 2027 World University Rankings include 2,297 institutions from 118 countries and territories, with the University of OxfordUniversity of OxfordThe University of Oxford is a university in Oxford, England, where teaching existed in some form by 1096; it describes itself as the oldest university in the English-speaking world and is organised as a federal system of the university and dozens of self-governing colleges.Open the full entry first for a record 11th consecutive year.⁠[29]

Inflexion invested in THE in February 2019 through its buyout fund and, as of October 2026, still lists it as a current investment; Inflexion said it supported THE in acquiring six businesses during its hold period, Inside Higher Ed being the second.⁠[30]

Times Higher Education: Official website: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[28]

Inflexion: Official website: https://www.inflexion.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[30]

Inside Higher Ed: Official website: https://www.insidehighered.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[22]

Poets&Quants: Official website: https://poetsandquants.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[24]