Ashwin has been with the QS Quacquarelli Symonds group since 2012. In his current role as Regional Director, he works closely with universities in Middle East, North Africa and South Asia to better understand the local context and to support universities and higher educational institutions in their quest for excellence and capacity building.

Ashwin is an ambassador of the quality movement in these regions and has advocated the need for independent evaluation mechanisms. He actively promotes the use of QS University Rankings and QS Ratings for various purposes, be it students aspiring for higher education in reputed institutions across the globe, government agencies looking to have their universities compete globally or academics looking for partners focused on research initiatives.

He is also responsible to liaise with governmental and public agencies to better understand the changing market dynamics. In the course of his professional engagement, he has met with senior leaders from the region and is often invited to speak at several conferences and events on university rankings, ratings, education, higher education etc. He has been a panelist on various discussion forums and presented his recommendations on thought provoking topics related to higher education.

Ashwin is part of the founding leadership team of QS IGAUGE and was instrumental in establishing the framework for QS IGAUGE rating services. QS IGAUGE is India’s first nationwide higher education rating system for colleges and universities pan India.

He has a Doctorate of Philosophy (D.Phil) along with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing degree and Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) in Financial Accounting, Auditing & Taxation. He has lived and worked in 5 countries and visited over 250 universities during in the last 9 years of his role at QS.