Times Higher Education

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 before being acquired by Exponent Private Equity in 2005.[2]

In March 2019, private equity group Inflexion Pvt. Equity Partners LLP acquired Times Higher Education from TPG Capital, becoming THE's fourth owners in 15 years.[3] 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.[4]

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 educational 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.[5]

From its first issue, in 1971, until 2008, The Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) was published in newspaper format and was born out of, and affiliated with, The Times newspaper. On 10 January 2008, it was relaunched as a magazine. It is published by TES Global, which until October 2005 was a division of Rupert Murdoch's News International. The magazine is edited by John Gill. Phil Baty is the editor-at-large, and is responsible for international coverage. He is also the editor of the magazine's World University Rankings.

The magazine features a fictional satirical column written by Laurie Taylor, the "Poppletonian", which reflects on life at the fictional Poppleton University.[6]

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.[7]

In 2019, it was widely rumoured that Elsevier, who already partners with THE in order to compile their university rankings,[8] was planning to take over Times Higher Education completely.[9]

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.[10]

On 11 September 2020, Netherlands-based Studyportals 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.[11]

Times Higher Education became known for publishing the annual Times Higher Education–QS World University Rankings, which first appeared in November 2004. On 30 October 2009 Times Higher Education broke with Quacquarelli Symonds, then its partner in compiling the Rankings, and signed an agreement with Thomson Reuters to provide the data instead.[12] The magazine developed a new methodology in consultation with its readers and its editorial board and the results were published annually from autumn 2010 to 2013, when THE signed a new deal with Elsevier.[8]

The magazine runs two sets of awards annually.

The first is the "Times Higher Education Awards".

The "Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards" (Thelmas) were launched in 2009. The Thelmas were set up to recognize the impact that administrative staff have on the success of higher education institutions.

• Times Higher Education official website