The reputation rankings, now in their third year, are based on an invitation-only survey of thousands of senior researchers from all over the world, providing an unparalleled insight into institutions¡¯ global academic prestige.

¡°This ranking is based purely on subjective judgement, but it is the expert judgement of those who know excellence in teaching and research better than anyone else ¨C experienced, informed and engaged academics,¡± said Phil Baty, editor of Times Higher Education rankings.

¡°Almost 50,000 academics have provided their expert insight over just three short annual rounds of the survey, providing a serious worldwide audit of an increasingly important but little-understood aspect of global higher education ¨C a university¡¯s academic brand.¡±

This year¡¯s reputation rankings will be the based on the 16,639 responses, from 144 countries, to Thomson Reuters¡¯ 2012 Academic Reputation Survey, which was carried out during March and April 2012. The 2011 survey attracted 17,554 responses, and 2010¡¯s survey attracted 13,388 respondents.

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The survey is by invitation only and academics are selected to be statistically representative of their geographical region and discipline. All are published scholars, questioned about their experiences in the field in which they work. The average time this year¡¯s respondents spent working in the sector was 17 years.

The reputation rankings are a spin-off from the annual Times Higher Education World University Rankings, which use 13 mainly objective indicators to deliver a multi-faceted and balanced picture of university performance. The reputation survey data used to create the reputation rankings form two indicators used in the overall World University Rankings.

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The 2013 World Reputation Rankings will be released live on the World University Rankings website at 2100 (GMT) on Monday 4 March, and will be formally launched at a special session of the British Council¡¯s Going Global conference in Dubai at 0845 local time on Tuesday 5 March.

At the Going Global event, THE rankings editor Phil Baty will give the first in-depth presentation and analysis of the results. Simon Pratt, product manager, institutional research, at Thomson Reuters, which supplies data for THE¡¯s global rankings, will offer an in-depth look at the survey methodology and will highlight some trends beneath the rankings headlines. The presentations will be followed by an in-depth question and answer session.