Australian unis slide in global rankings

Australia’s top universities are sinking in world rankings and ‘reputation’ is a key factor.

Australia’s university sector is on a “precipice”, experts warn, with a majority of the country’s 10 top centres of higher learning suffering falls in the latest global ranking from Times Higher Education.

The respected survey, which marks 2860 universities across the world on a range of metrics from teaching to research, shows just one Australian university, the University of Melbourne, made it into the world’s top 50, and most slipped in their respective positions on the ladder.

Melbourne is ranked in 39th position in 2025, falling from 37 in 2024.

Australian National University in Canberra fell to 73rd spot from 67th, the University of Sydney sits at 61 from 60, the University of Adelaide moves down to 128 from 111 and the prestigious University of Queensland retreated seven places to 77 from 70.

“Australian higher education stands on the brink of a long-anticipated dive in its international standing, after almost half the sector went backwards in this year’s Times Higher Education World University Rankings,” the report, released on Wednesday, states.

Australia’s top universities have slipped in rankings from 2024 to 2025. Picture: NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“Seventeen of Australia’s 38 assessed institutions lost ground this year, including the five best-ranked universities.

“Seven recorded their worst results in at least nine years, while just four moved up the league table.

“The average ranking of Australian universities declined by five places. Their mean scores fell by 0.2 points compared with an average increase of 0.5 points worldwide.”

RMIT University rankings expert Angel Calderon credits the fall-off to Australia’s declining reputation score and warned the country’s debate around international enrolments caps could further erode university rankings.

“If this debate continues, I think a few people will basically be feeling less sympathetic towards Australia,” he said.

THE’s chief global affairs officer Phil Baty said Australia was also losing ground in the field of international research collaboration.

“International student caps may further erode income for some top institutions [and] diminish Australia’s world-leading reputation as an open and internationally facing sector,” Mr Baty warned.

The university sector delivered $31.7bn in education export income in 2023, according to the Department of Education.

But beginning in 2025, the federal government will limit the number of international students to 270,000 in a bid to reduce net migration into Australia.

Though the fall-off from 2024 is stark, THE also shows a consistent uptick in scores for most top-tier Australian universities from 2020.

UQ’s overall score was 67.4 in 2020 and it now stands at 70.3

The University of Adelaide has moved from 65.9 to 69.1 and the University of Sydney has moved from 69.3 to 73.7.

For most universities, the teaching subcomponent has dragged down the overall score for 2025.

Adelaide receives a teaching score of 39.1, while its international outlook metric scores at 92.

UQ scores 50.8 in teaching, while its international outlook is marked at 93.6.

Originally published as Australian unis slide in global rankings