ANU slips globally, but tops nation in QS world university rankings

Australia has five universities in the 2021 QS World Rankings, with the Australian National University remaining our best.

Australian National University (ANU) Chancellor Julie Bishop was this appointed the 13th Chancellor of the ANU and the first ever female Chancellor.

The Australian National University remains the country’s leading institute in the 2021 QS World University Rankings, although it has dropped two places, to joint 31, since last year.

However, the University of Melbourne was best in Australia on two of the criteria used in the QS ranking; on top in both the reputation surveys of academics and employers.

The other four Australian institutions in the top 50, as listed in the ranking by higher education consultancy QS Quacquarelli Symonds, are: Sydney, up two places to 40; Melbourne, down three places to 41; UNSW, down one to 44; and Queensland, up one to 46. Australia now has five in the top 50 places, behind Britain, with eight, and the US, with 17.

Other leading Australian universities are Monash at 55, the University of Western Australia at 92 and the University of Adelaide at 106.

The QS World University Rankings 2021 have just launched! 🦁 The wait is over – discover the world's best universities now: https://t.co/JEcuTvC93A#QSWUR #topuniversities #rankings #highered #studyhere

— QS World University Rankings (@worlduniranking) June 9, 2020

The rankings assess academic and employer reputation (via the surveys), citations per faculty; faculty/student ratio; international faculty ratio and international student ratio.

Of 36 Australian universities in the rankings this year, 23 rose, 12 dropped and the University of Adelaide maintained its position.

The ANU campus in Acton.

While most Australian universities in the table did well on the research impact indicator, 34 of the 36 scored less than a year ago in the teaching capacity measure of faculty/student ratio; and 32 recorded lower scores for the graduate employability measure.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology topped the ranking globally for a record ninth consecutive year, followed by Stanford and Harvard in second and third respectively.

In Britain, the University of Oxford was top, although it dropped from four to five overall, and Cambridge remained at seven.

Asian universities had their best year to date, with 26 in the global top 100, led by the National University of Singapore, which stayed at 11, and Nanyang Technological University, also in Singapore, at 13.