Six Australian unis in top 100
Australian universities have maintained their standing in the prestigious Academic Ranking of World Universities.
Australian universities have maintained their standing in the prestigious Academic Ranking of World Universities with six institutions in the top 100 list released today.
The same six universities as last year — the University of Melbourne (38th),. the University of Queensland (55th), the University of Sydney (68th), the Australian National University (69th), Monash University (91st) and the University of Western Australia (93rd) — were again named in the top 100.
Notable improvers were the ANU, which at 97th last year almost dropped out of the top 100, and the University of Sydney which last year was 83rd. UNSW’s performance sharply improved to almost make it into the top 100 this year, although precise ranks are not published for universities outside the top 100.
While the University of WA did not improve its rank this year, next year it is likely to rise sharply because its graduate, Akshay Venkatesh, was recently named a winner of the Fields Medal in mathematics. The ARWU methodology strongly rewards universities which produce Fields Medal or Nobel prize winners.
The ARWU, produced by the China-based ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, is the one of the most closely followed global university ranking systems. It is based solely on high-value research, rewarding universities for the number of highly cited researchers they have, the number of papers published in the Nature and Science journals, the number of citations their researchers receive and their number of alumni and academic staff who have won Nobel prizes of Fields Medals.
Overall Australia has 23 universities in the ARWU top 500 this year, the name number as last year.
Globally, Harvard remained in first ranked position, followed by Stanford, Cambridge, MIT and Berkeley.
Melbourne, Australia’s top university, ranked at 38th, is one place higher than last year.
Its vice-chancellor, Glyn Davis, said the result was a testament to the university’s focus on research excellence and quality education.
“This focus has enabled us to be ranked number one in Australia and number three in the Asia-Pacific region — a position that we’re extremely proud to achieve,” he said.
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