QS rankings reveals The University of Melbourne as Australia’s top university

New QS rankings have revealed Victoria’s best performing universities. See which institution takes the lead and how your uni compares.

The University of Melbourne has taken the spot as Australia’s top university. Picture: David Geraghty

The University of Melbourne has taken the spot as Australia’s top university, according to the latest QS rankings.

The university, which placed 13th best in the world, moved up by one position compared to its status last year.

The leading tertiary institution performed better than The University of Sydney and The University of New South Wales, which placed 18th and 19th respectively.

But the latest data showed 76 per cent of Australian universities had received lower year-on-year relative scores from more than 105,000 employers worldwide, captured in the Employer Reputation metric.

Each year, the education research company ranks the top institutes across the globe using a range of criteria, including academic excellence, cultural diversity, and employability opportunities for students.

Monash University had leapt five places from 42 to 37 compared to last year’s data, while RMIT moved up from 140 to 123.

Deakin moved up 36 spots, ranking 197, while La Trobe achieved 217 – moving up 25 spots.

The top three universities in the world included Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Imperial College London and University of Oxford.

The data also showed Australia had 713,144 international students, compared to the US which had an intake of more than 1.05m.

RMIT moved up from 140 to 123. Picture: David Geraghty

QS chief executive Jessica Turner said tighter regulations for international student visas may prompt several thousands of prospective students to look beyond Australia.

“It is important to balance regulatory measures with the need to support the international education sector and the opportunities it provides,” Ms Turner said.

University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Professor Duncan Maskell said he was proud to see the university’s continued rise in global rankings.

“It’s terrific to see the University of Melbourne continue to improve and be globally recognised for its high-quality education and research,” Prof Maskell said.

“The University of Melbourne aspires to be a world-leading and globally connected Australian university with students at the heart of everything we do. This means prioritising deep research collaborations, a globally minded curriculum, and the best possible student experience for our diverse community.”

But RMIT University director of strategic insights and member of the QS Global Rankings Advisory Board Angel Calderon said: “For over a decade, Australian universities continue to exhibit relative weakness in the employer reputation survey.”

“In the eyes of employers, it is a clear reflection of the improved educational quality of Asian universities,” he said.

“Despite the financial challenges Australian universities have faced in the past five years, these results demonstrate universities’ resilience in maintaining outstanding performance in the global arena. It also demonstrates the significant contributions universities make to the economy and improve people’s lives.

“The proposed introduction of a cap to the number of international students will be detrimental to the viability of Australian universities, erodes Australia’s educational quality and knowledge production capacity and runs contrary to addressing skills shortages.”