A study on çUniversity Ranking: A Study of Criteriaé sponsored by the Association ofPrivate Higher Education Institutions of Thailand (APHEIT) was conducted to: 1) examinethe forms/methods and criteria used by six organizations in five countries in rankingthe universities in their countries, and 2) find some guidelines to rank universities inThailand or for Thai universities to prepare themselves to enter the ranking processcarried out by foreign organizations. The data sources were documents, publicationsand research studies related to appraisal and ranking of universities in Thailand andabroad by the six afore-mentioned organizations. Also, in-depth interviews were conductedto collect data from three target groups, namely, administrators of the national educationpolicy, university administrators and those studying and following the ranking of worldleading universities. Content analysis was made to describe the data. The findings weresummed up as follows: Thailand should begin with ranking universities in Thailand byan independent organization (public or private) to avoid bias. Individual universities as awhole, and individual disciplines should be ranked independently because each universityhas different strengths and potentials. Although the forms/methods and indicators usedby the foreign organizations can be adopted to rank universities in Thailand, they should beadapted to suit the Thai educational context. The government, universities and relatedagencies must be convinced of the importance of ranking universities in Thailand. All universities should cooperate and accept the results of the appraisal so that highereducation can be developed to reach global standards.