Our universities fail specialist test

AUSTRALIA does not have one world-class "specialist" university, according to a report on the nation's tertiary institutions.

AUSTRALIA does not have one world-class "specialist" university, according to a report on the nation's tertiary institutions.

However, despite the nation's lack of a specialist centre to seriously compete on the world stage, the Australian National University, with its focus on science and humanities, was ranked as the best in the country by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research rankings.

The ANU edged out Melbourne University in the latest rankings of the country's public institutions and their international standing, which for the first time takes into account university specialisation.

The author of the rankings study, Ross Williams of the University of Melbourne, said that apart from ANU's move to the top, there were no significant changes to the rankings when university specialisation was taken into account.

"We have institutions that are more specialised than the others, but they don't shoot up terribly in the rankings," Professor Williams said yesterday.

"This finding reflects the fact that Australia does not possess outstanding specialist institutions such as the London School of Economics, the Swiss Federal Institute of Science and the Indian Institute for Science.

"We don't have any institutions in Australia that are specialised and world-class."

Despite the finding that Australia does not have a world-class specialist university, a number of general institutions rate highly in the world university rankings.

The ANU was ranked 57 in the Shanghai Jiao Tong University index and came 16th in The Times of London rankings, while the University of Melbourne was ranked 79th by Shanghai and 22nd by The Times.

Professor Williams said the one institution that moved up the rankings was the Queensland University of Technology, which climbed from 16th to 10th.

"Apart from ANU, the biggest improver in ratings when allowance is made for scope is QUT; the University of Western Sydney and University of Technology Sydney also show a small improvement," the report says.

The most specialised university - measured by the distribution of staff in each discipline - was the University of the Sunshine Coast, followed by Swinburne University and the Australian Catholic University, Professor Williams found.

The University of the Sunshine Coast ranked 27th on international standing, while Swinburne ranked 26th and ACU was 29th.

If university specialisation is taken out of the international rankings, the University of Melbourne goes back to the top and the ANU falls to third place.

The findings come despite a big push by the Howard Government to get universities to differentiate themselves by becoming specialists rather than offering every course available.

ANU vice-chancellor Ian Chubb said he was pleased the university had come out on top.

"Science and humanities account for close to 80 per cent of our staff so it's a fairly concentrated institution in that sense."

But Professor Chubb said it was difficult for Australian universities to become as specialised and successful as institutions such as the London School of Economics. "We don't have that level of specialisation," he said.