Higher education, post-secondary education, or third level education is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completion of secondary education.

Often delivered at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, conservatories, and institutes of technology, higher education is also available through certain college-level institutions, including vocational schools, trade schools, and other career colleges that award academic degrees or professional certifications.

Tertiary education at non-degree level is sometimes referred to as further education or continuing education as distinct from higher education.

A university ("a whole", "a corporation") is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which grants academic degrees in various academic disciplines.

Universities typically provide undergraduate education and postgraduate education.

College (Latin: collegium) is an educational institution or a constituent part of one.

A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, or an institution offering vocational education.

Times Higher Education World University Rankings is an annual publication of university rankings by Times Higher Education (THE) magazine.

The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) to publish the joint THE–QS World University Rankings from 2004 to 2009 before it turned to Thomson Reuters for a new ranking system.

The publication now comprises the world's overall, subject, and reputation rankings, alongside three regional league tables, Asia, Latin America, and BRICS & Emerging Economies which are generated by consistent methodology.

It is considered as one of the most widely observed university measures together with Academic Ranking of World Universities and QS World University Rankings.

It is praised for having a new improved methodology but undermining non-English-instructing institutions and being commercialized are the major criticisms.