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.

[3] 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.

In the 1980s, The Thes pioneered comparisons of the reputations of university departments through peer review conducted by consulting academics in the field under scrutiny.

Managed by O'Leary, this become the foundation for the league table of United Kingdom universities that was launched under his stewardship as Education Editor of The Times.

[6] Under Scott's editorship, it stood apart from other titles in Rupert Murdoch's News International in endorsing the Labour Party at successive General Elections.

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

State secretary Balázs Hankó, who oversees higher education, said "the goal was to have a Hungarian university among the world’s 100 best by 2030, and at least three among Europe’s top 100.

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.

[16] 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.