Melbourne Uni tops Australia in latest world rankings

University of Melbourne has ranked as best tertiary institution amid criticism for ‘gaming’ a system designed to meet the policy priorities of the Chinese government.

A tram bound for the University of Melbourne.

University of Melbourne has ranked as Australia’s best tertiary institution in the latest Academic Ranking of World Universities, rising six places from last year, but it has been criticised for gaming a system explicitly designed to meet the policy priorities of the Chinese government.

Australia’s seven highest ranking universities have held their prized positions in the top 100 of the annual ranking of 1000 institutions compiled by the China-based ShanghaiRanking Consultancy.

Harvard, Stanford and Cambridge made up the top three this year, with Melbourne coming in at 35 and the University of Queensland the second highest Australian ranking at 54.

The ARWU ranks universities based on their performance in Nobel prizes (excluding for peace or literature), Fields Medals in mathematics, publications in ­science and nature and success in recruiting “highly cited ­researchers”.

Sociologist Salvatore Babones has criticised the list as being designed by the Chinese government to judge on Chinese objectives and has accused the top Australian universities of “internalising” the ideals the ranking system promotes — namely pursuits in science and maths over humanities.

“Australian universities have been internalising the Chinese objectives promoted by the ARWU and have slowly risen in its ranks over the 17 years it has been published,” Professor Babones said. “They have been pushing to meet China’s priorities instead of pushing to meet a broader, liberal agenda that we would ordinarily associate with Western universities.”

A spokesman from the University of Melbourne said the ­institution’s rise in the ARWU rankings reflected “the hard work of the academic staff who dedicate themselves to scientific ­research”.