The relevant agencies that compile the rankings do not asses all universities in the world, but approximately 1,500 of the best. This list usually includes universities with good academic and professional reputations that have been operating for at least several years. When making a ranking, many indicators are taken into account. For example, the Times Higher Education evaluates universities according to 17 criteria, which are grouped into five areas: teaching, research, citations, international orientation, and industry revenues.

National rankings and rankings for different regions are also very important, for example, for Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, the Arab region, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. This allows more universities to be included in the list, and applicants can compare universities in a specific area. At the same time, the assessment methodology remains unchanged and does not take into account regional peculiarities and the economic context.

In addition to the general ranking, each agency publishes specialized ones. For example, subject areas that allow you to identify specialized universities in certain areas.