''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The Thes''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education.
Ownership
TPG Capital acquired TSL Education from Charterhouse in a £400 million deal in July 2013 and rebranded TSL Education, of which Times Higher Education was a part, as TES Global. The acquisition by TPG marked the third change of ownership in less than a decade for Times Higher Education, which was previously owned by
News International
News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a List of newspapers in the United Kingdom, British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media Conglomerate (c ...
before being acquired by Exponent Private Equity in 2005.
In March 2019, private equity group Inflexion Pvt. Equity Partners LLP acquired Times Higher Education from
TPG Capital
TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American investment company based in Fort Worth, Texas. The private equity firm is focused on leveraged buyouts and growth capital. TPG manages investment funds in growth c ...
, becoming THE's fourth owners in 15 years. Following the acquisition by the private equity group, Times Higher Education was carved out as an independent entity from TES Global. The investment was made by Inflexion's dedicated mid-market buyout funds.
The exclusive advisor for the acquisition by Inflexion was Houlihan Lokey, an investment company which has previously assisted several private equity groups acquire
for-profit education
For-profit education (also known as the education services industry or proprietary education) refers to educational institutions operated by private, profit-seeking businesses. For-profit education is common in many parts of the world, making up ...
al organisations. Post-acquisition, Houlihan Lokey noted that the existing Times Higher Education team will work to meet the demand for data and branding products, and look at cross-selling to existing clients.
History
From its first issue, on 15 October 1971, until 2008, ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The Thes'') was published weekly in newspaper format and was born out of its sister paper, the ''Times Educational Supplement (TES)'' and affiliated with ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' newspaper.
Its founding editor,
Brian MacArthur
Brian MacArthur (5 February 1940 – 24 March 2019) was a British newspaper editor.
Early life
MacArthur studied at Brentwood School, Helsby Grammar School and the University of Leeds.
Career
In 1962, he entered journalism, his first job bein ...
, recruited a team of talented young reporters to chart the expanding higher education sector, including
Peter Hennessy
Peter John Hennessy, Baron Hennessy of Nympsfield, (born 28 March 1947) is an English historian and academic specialising in the history of government. Since 1992, he has been Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary Unive ...
(now Lord Hennessy),
David Henke, David Walker,
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books (including five essay collections) on culture, politics, and literature. Born and educated in England, ...
, and
Peter Scott
Sir Peter Markham Scott, (14 September 1909 – 29 August 1989) was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter, naval officer, broadcaster and sportsman. The only child of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, he took an interest in ...
, who was appointed editor in 1976. Scott remained editor until 1992, leading a team of journalists that included
Robin McKie
Robin McKie is a writer known for his journalism in ''The Observer'', a publication for which he has served as science editor. As a result of his work, he has won awards from organizations such as the Medical Journalists’ Association, reviving ...
,
John O'Leary (who would later return as editor after a period at ''The Times''), and
Peter David
Peter Allen David (born September 23, 1956), often abbreviated PAD, is an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films and video games.Buxton, Marc (March 29, 2014)"From 'Future Imperfect' to '2099': Peter David's Greatest Hits" Co ...
. Other staff reporters in this period included Ngaio Crequer an
Judith Judd Brian Morton,
Lynne Truss
Lynne Truss (born 31 May 1955) is an English author, journalist, novelist, and radio broadcaster and dramatist. She is arguably best known for her championing of correctness and aesthetics in the English language, which is the subject of her p ...
an
Olga Wojtashave established careers as writers.
In the 1980s, ''The Thes'' pioneered comparisons of the reputations of university departments through peer review conducted by consulting academics in the field under scrutiny. Managed by O’Leary, this become the foundation for the league table of United Kingdom universities that was launched under his stewardship as Education Editor of ''The Times''.
''The Thes'' was a supporter of the then “binary divide” between the established universities and the polytechnics and the links between the latter and the local education authorities, which ended with the
Further and Higher Education Act 1992
The Further and Higher Education Act 1992 made changes in the funding and administration of further education and higher education within England and Wales, with consequential effects on associated matters in Scotland which had previously been ...
.
The magazine features a fictional satirical column written by
Laurie Taylor, the "Poppletonian", which reflects on life at the fictional Poppleton University.
Under Scott’s editorship, it stood apart from other titles in Rupert Murdoch’s News International in endorsing the Labour Party at successive General Elections.
In 1992 Scott left for academe and was replaced by
Auriol Stevens
Auriol Hazel Dawn Stevens (born 4 November 1940) is a British journalist, and former editor of the ''Times Higher Education Supplement'', the leading national publication for UK universities.
Early life
She was the daughter of Captain Barry Ste ...
, who was editor until 2002. Under her editorship ''The Thes'' strongly supported the case for undergraduate students to contribute to their higher education through
tuition fees
Tuition payments, usually known as tuition in American English and as tuition fees in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English, are fees charged by education institutions for instruction or other services. Besides public spen ...
.
''The Thes'' was the first of Rupert Murdoch’s UK titles to put its text, archive and job ads on line, although the text was at that time behind a subscription wall. Stevens described the move as the "Murdoch empire's canary in the coal mine".
With its elder sister publication, the Times Educational Supplement, it was acquired by venture capital grou
Exponentin October 2005 for £205m.
On 10 January 2008, it was relaunched as a magazine, published by TES Global. The magazine is edited by John Gill. Phil Baty is the
editor-at-large
An editor-at-large is a journalist who contributes content to a publication. Sometimes such an editor is called a roving reporter or roving editor.
Unlike an editor who works on a publication from day to day and is hands-on, an editor-at-large con ...
, and is responsible for international coverage. He is also the editor of the magazine's World University Rankings.
In 2011, ''Times Higher Education'' was awarded the titles of "Weekly Business Magazine of the Year" and "Media Business Brand of the Year" by the
Professional Publishers Association
The Professional Publishers Association (PPA), formerly known as the Periodical Publishers Association until 2011, is the main publishing industry body which promotes companies involved in the production of media, supporting the creative economy at ...
.
In 2019, it was widely rumoured that
Elsevier
Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', th ...
, who already partners with ''THE'' in order to compile their university rankings,
was planning to take over ''Times Higher Education'' completely.
In August 2020, ''Times Higher Education'' announced partnerships with recruitment agency SI-UK and accommodation provider Casita, signalling its entry into the overseas student recruitment and student housing markets.
On 11 September 2020, Netherlands-based
Studyportals
Studyportals B.V. is an Eindhoven-based company involved in providing an online education choice platform, listing more than 200,000 undergraduate, postgraduate, distance learning, preparation course programmes worldwide, along with other internat ...
announced that it had inked an agreement with ''Times Higher Education'', which will see the Times Higher Education website’s student visitors directed to the Studyportals student recruitment platform whenever students look into courses run by universities that ''THE'' ranks in its World University Rankings.
University rankings
''Times Higher Education'' became known for publishing the annual ''
Times Higher Education–QS World University Rankings
The term Times Higher Education–QS World University Rankings refers to rankings published jointly between 2004 and 2009 by ''Times Higher Education'' and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). After QS and ''Times Higher Education'' had ended their collabora ...
'', which first appeared in November 2004. On 30 October 2009 ''Times Higher Education'' broke with
Quacquarelli Symonds
Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) is a British company specialising in the analysis of higher education institutions around the world. The company was founded in 1990 by Nunzio Quacquarelli.
History
On 5 October 2017, QS Quacquarelli Symonds acquired Hob ...
, then its partner in compiling the Rankings, and signed an agreement with
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre.
Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corpora ...
to provide the data instead. The magazine developed a new methodology in consultation with its readers and its
editorial board
The editorial board is a group of experts, usually at a publication, who dictate the tone and direction the publication's editorial policy will take.
Mass media
At a newspaper, the editorial board usually consists of the editorial page editor, a ...
and the results were published annually from autumn 2010 to 2013, when ''THE'' signed a new deal with
Elsevier
Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', th ...
.
As well as its THE World University Rankings, ''Times Higher Education'' also publishes a number of other rankings:
Events
''Times Higher Education'' runs a series of summits, forums and symposiums throughout the year. Chaired by ''THE''
's editorial journalists, these events bring together global leaders and influencers from across academic, government and industry to debate, discuss and drive forward the future of higher education governance, innovation and research.
Awards
The magazine runs two sets of awards annually, the "''Times Higher Education'' Awards" (launched in 2007) and the "''Times Higher Education'' Awards Asia" (launched in 2019). The "''Times Higher Education'' Leadership and Management Awards" (Thelmas) ran from 2011 to 2018..
The ''Times Higher Education'' University of the Year 2020 Winners, nominated the educational universities in the UK for the 2020 University of the Year Awards.
References
External links
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{{Authority control
1971 establishments in the United Kingdom
Magazines published in the United Kingdom
Weekly magazines published in the United Kingdom
Education magazines
Higher education in the United Kingdom
Magazines published in London
Magazines established in 1971
Newspaper supplements