About Us

About Us
 

Why we started UniversityGuru

We created the UniversityGuru website with the belief that there must be a better way for students to compare university programmes. By providing a wealth of useful information and data on universities, the subjects they teach and even specific study programmes, we aim to help prospective students make better decisions about which university and which programme to choose.
UniversityGuru brings together pertinent info ranging from university rankings and student surveys to data on salaries and employment of graduates.
Unfortunately, so far, much of this information has not been easily accessible to students or was frequently spread out over a hundred different sources. So much so, that many students are not aware of much of the information available out there, which would be helpful to them in making better study decisions, if only they could find it.
A chosen study programme is usually a major investment for students and their families and will have significant impact on future job options. We want prospective students to have all relevant information easily accessible in one place and in a format that makes it easy to compare all the study options on offer in a given country just with a few clicks. We want students to make better informed choices about what to study.
 

How do we help students make better study choices

UniversityGuru brings together conveniently in one place:
  • 135 different university rankings
    We have collected the most comprehensive data on university rankings that you will find anywhere. All relevant world university rankings and the major country specific rankings are continuously tracked and updated by our team. For the major rankings you can also see the historical changes over the last years.
    We help you make sense of all the different rankings by indicating what those rankings really measure in the end. Wherever possible, we provide the data for how the universities rank in your specific subject, which is much more relevant for choosing a programme than rankings on the institution level.
    Over 1000 subject specific rankings are accessible on our site. Despite all the methodological limitations that rankings may have, they often accurately reflect the reputation of an institution and even a specific department which can be an important factor for your job search after graduation.
  • Reviews from students and graduates
    In the end, who is better suited to evaluate a programme than the students and graduates that actually attended the programme? Student reviews are important sources to consider when choosing a programme.
    We include student satisfaction surveys from the National Student Office, as well as student reviews from other sources such as Google and Facebook.
  • Public data regarding salaries, unemployment rates and other relevant facts and figures
    For the UK, a treasure of public data is available which provides prospective students important data on salary, unemployment and other relevant data points, broken down by study programme or university subject level.
    Where available, we provide this information for the courses directly in the programme pages. We also aggregate the data for you, for about 1000 different subjects, which provides valuable guidance when deciding between different areas of study.
  • Comprehensive course list
    Contrary to many other sites we do not present you with a limited list of study programmes from just a few universities which pay for a listing. We aim to show you a comprehensive list of all the study options that are available to you.
 

Experienced team

UniversityGuru is run by an experienced team around CEO Daniel Spohn, PhD. With over 20 years experience in the sector, he previously lead LanguageCourse.net to become one of the most visited and, we dare to say, also the most useful sites worldwide for comparing thousands of language course programmes.
UniversityGuru was set up to bring the same level of objectively comparable and transparent information to higher education study programmes.
 

Facts and Figures

  • Number of universities listed: 13302
  • University rankings tracked and updated: 112
  • Website languages: 22
  • Annual website visitors: Over 5 million unique visitors on UniversityGuru
  • Year of foundation: 2020
 

Office

Our office is located in the city centre of Santa Cruz de Tenerife overlooking the old city and the harbour.
Visitor Hours:
Monday - Friday: 9:30-17:00
 

Meet the Team

Cora Lee Paddock
Cora Lee Paddock
Languages:
Craig Plunkett
Craig Plunkett
Languages: Lived in Scotland, England, Ireland, Spain Studied at York College (Business Diploma/Extended Diploma Level 3)
Daniel Spohn
Daniel Spohn
CEO & Founder
Languages: Lived in Germany, Switzerland, South Africa, China, USA, Sweden, Spain Studied at University St. Gallen (Dr.oec.)
Joan Soms
Joan Soms
Full Stack Developer
Languages: Lived in Spain, USA, Brazil
 

Mission and Core Values

Mission
Our mission and our pride is providing the best worldwide service for comparing university programmes.
To achieve our mission, we strive relentlessly to offer the users of our service:
  • the most comprehensive collection of relevant information
  • the largest selection of programmes
  • the best tools and user experience for quickly and transparently comparing useful course information and reviews
Core Values
Our actions towards our clients, colleagues and partner educational institutions are guided by our core values CARPPE:
Core Values
  • Caring
  • Ambitious
  • Reliable
  • Positive
  • Professional
  • Effective
 

Giving Back - Corporate Social Responsibility

We are passionate about supporting outstanding charities with extraordinary impact on the health and well-being of people living in extreme poverty.
A significant share of our profits shall be directed towards the most effective charities.
We believe that more people should know about the research provided by the charity evaluator GiveWell and the fact that a donation of only 4500€ can save one life and avoid 300 nonfatal malaria infections ( see the in-depth impact analysis of Malaria Consortium).
 

Who pays for our service

The information provided on our site is provided free of charge to any visitor.
Universities and colleges have the option to choose between free and paid course listing options.
Paid course listings enable universities to provide additional information about the course and to benefit from more exposure of their listed courses.