Melbourne Uni leapfrogs Sydney in world rankings

As the industry struggles through the pandemic, The University of Melbourne has had a surprise result in the latest global rankings of tertiary institutions.

The University of Melbourne has climbed the global rankings of tertiary institutions, according to a new report today, overtaking Sydney University.

The Parkville-based uni is now rated 37th in the world, up from 41st, in the QS World University Rankings 2022.

Sydney University is now 38th but the Australian National University is the highest ranked in the country at 27th from the 1300 universities that were assessed from around the world.

Other Victorian universities ranked are Monash (58), RMIT (206), Deakin (283), Swinburne (321), La Trobe (362) and Victoria (601-650).

The strong performance of Australian institutions was because of higher scores in research, a surprising result given the economic impact of the pandemic and closed borders on the sector.

QS research director Ben Sowter said the continued strength of Australian higher education was predicated on its enduring appeal to the global academic community.

But he said that the falls in international enrolments, particularly from China and India, would not only present a financial threat but would jeopardise the intellectual diversity that made Australia’s institutions thrive.

University of Melbourne jumped in the latest QS university rankings.

University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Professor Duncan Maskell said the result was a credit to the academic and professional staff who had delivered outstanding research despite the challenges of the pandemic.

“It is no surprise that recognition for research excellence and teaching in the QS Rankings has translated into the University of Melbourne further enhancing its reputation as one of the world’s finest universities,” Prof Maskell said.

La Trobe Vice-Chancellor Professor John Dewar said the Bundoora-based university 36-place improvement this year was “a ringing endorsement’’ for the institution and its engagement with communities and partners.

“This result recognises our exceptional teaching and learning, our high impact research, and our longstanding reputation as an employer of choice,’’ Prof Dewar said.

Globally, QS’s top five universities are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Oxford, Stanford, Cambridge and Harvard. MIT was top for the 10th year in a row.

London-based QS annually ranks the universities based on academic reputation, employer feedback, the number of research citations, the faculty-student ratio, its international faculties and the proportion of international students.

Vice-Chancellor of Melbourne University Duncan Maskell. Picture: Mark Stewart

In the Times Higher Education’s university rankings, released last September, Melbourne Uni was rated 31st, Sydney 51st, ANU 59th and Monash 64th.

The latest rankings come a day after Melbourne University announced another 158 redundancies following the 301 job cuts last year as part of its Pandemic Reset Program.

The economic loss of international student fees has led to about 17,000 jobs being lost in the university sector since the pandemic hit, with about 4900 of those at the eight Victoria-based institutions. RMIT and La Trobe recorded the highest job losses.