If the publication of the QS World University Rankings® 2018 earlier this year wasn’t enough to satisfy your craving for ranked lists of universities, we’ve got a treat for you. On October 17, four new regional rankings will be published on TopUniversities.com, allowing you to discover the best universities in Latin America, Asia, Emerging Europe & Central Asia, and the Arab Region.

Using a different methodology to the world rankings published in June, these new rankings will provide greater insight into how the universities in each of these fast-growing regions are performing. Each ranking has been developed in consultation with experts based in the relevant region to ensure we give the most accurate picture possible of universities which are perhaps traditionally overlooked by some in favor of focusing on American, British and western European institutions.

This year, the QS Asia University Rankings will feature more than 400 universities from 17 different countries. 10 different indicators have been used to assess institutions, including the proportion of academic staff qualified to PhD level and the proportion of inbound and outbound exchange students at the university. Last year, the National University of Singapore was named the best in Asia, but how will it do this year?

The QS Latin America University Rankings is often dominated by Brazilian institutions, with 89 different universities from the country featured in last year’s ranking. Will there be as many included this year, and will Universidade de São Paulo still be the best university in the region?

QS has been ranking universities in this region of the world since 2014 and this year’s QS Arab Region University Rankings is set to be the biggest one yet. Nearly 150 universities have made it into the final ranking for the year, but who will be number one? Last year, the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals took the top spot but it will face stiff competition this year. Eight different indicators have been used to rank this region’s universities, including the number of academic papers published per faculty member.

Although the final of the four rankings to be published this month is not a region which traditionally receives much attention, the QS EECA University Rankings 2018 is a vital way of tracking the development of higher education in this part of the world. Set to feature the top 300 universities in the region, this year’s ranking was constructed using eight different indicators, including the university’s online presence and the proportion of academic staff members qualified to a PhD level.

All four rankings will be published on October 17, along with detailed information about the methodology behind each ranking and a downloadable supplement exploring the results in more detail.

UK graduates will now be able to earn more before repaying their student loans, due to changes in the repayment threshold from today, saving them up to £360 per year.

If you took out student loans anytime from September 2012, you’ll now only need to start paying them back when you’re earning at least £25,000 a year. Previously, the loan repayment threshold was just £21,000.

Around 600,000 graduates, as well as thousands of current students, will benefit from these changes.

For those who took out their loans before September 2012, the repayment threshold has also risen, albeit with a less significant benefit, to £18,330 - up from £17,775 - in line with inflation. 

Amatey Doku, the vice-president for higher education at the National Union of Students (NUS), said: "This change will be a welcome relief for many of the lowest-earning graduates.”

However, research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that middle-earning graduates will benefit the most from the change, saving them up to £15,700 in repayments over their lifetimes.

Universities Minister Sam Gyimah called the move a key milestone: “We are seeing more 18-year-olds than ever before attend university, including the highest ever number from disadvantaged backgrounds and we want to give these students a fair deal, both during their studies and afterwards too.”

While today’s news will be welcomed by many graduates, Mr Doku also stressed that the UK government needs to do more to tackle the wider issue of student finance and make studying in the UK more accessible.

“This will not change the fact that our maintenance model is fundamentally regressive - students from the lowest income families accrue £57,000 of debt, compared to £42,000 for their more privileged peers."

Maintenance grants for the poorest students were scrapped and replaced by loans in 2016, and tuition fees remain high at up to £9,250 a year, arguably making studying at university difficult for students from lower income backgrounds. Student loan interest rates are also a concern, as they’re currently set at 6.1 percent. 

Prime Minister Theresa May announced a review of tuition fees and student funding in February, in which she ruled out scrapping tuition fees altogether, but recognized that "the level of fees charged do not relate to the cost or quality of the course