The Times Higher Education World University Rankings were developed in concert with our rankings data provider, Thomson Reuters, with expert input from more than 50 leading figures in the sector from 15 countries across every continent. We believe we have created the gold standard in international university performance comparisons.

Our rankings of the top universities across the globe employ 13 separate performance indicators are brought together into five headline categories, which are:

Teaching - the learning environment (worth 30 per cent of the overall ranking score).

Research – volume, income and reputation (worth 30 per cent).

Citations – research influence (worth 30 per cent).

Industry income – innovation (worth 2.5 per cent).

International outlook – staff, students and research (worth 7.5 per cent).

On sale date – 4th October 2012

You can pre-order your copy of the THE World University Rankings and it will be sent direct to your door on the day of sale.

For even richer and deeper analysis, download our free Times Higher Education World University Rankings iPhone application, which allows you to change the weighting of our five broadcast indicators, filter results by country and region and match your personalised rankings against cost-of-living and undergraduate tuition fee data.