‘Serious warning signs’: UQ clocks worst global ranking in eight years

The global ranking of Queensland’s best university has tumbled, with the state’s sandstone tertiary institution falling seven places on a prestigious world index.

The Times Higher Education (THE) index has downgraded the University of Queensland from the 70th best university in the world to the 77th. It was the institution’s worst position since 2016.

Most of Australia’s elite tertiary institutions – including the University of Melbourne, Monash University, the University of Sydney, and the Australian National University – also went backwards in the 2025 rankings. Nationally, 17 universities suffered falls.

The University of Queensland has fallen in the world rankings.Credit: Jamila Toderas

Queensland’s Griffith University was among the seven institutions to record their worst performance since 2016, dropping from the 251-300 band to 301-350.

Griffith recently acquired Brisbane’s heritage-listed Treasury Building for $67.5 million from Star Entertainment and intends to open “a state-of-the-art educational environment” for its business, IT, and law faculties in 2027.

The Queensland University of Technology dropped from 199 to the 201-250 range, and Bond University remained within the 401-500 span.

The rankings, which are closely watched in the sector and used by universities in their marketing, are based on performance indicators across five areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry, and international outlook.

However, experts are sceptical of the utility of the index in giving a clear picture of the state of the sector.

A UQ spokeswoman said the institution was ranked 77th out of 2092 universities surveyed for the index, and remained fifth in Australia and first in Queensland.

“While rankings are an important global benchmark, the university remains focused on providing a world-leading education for domestic and international students, and making a significant contribution to Australia’s R&D [research and development] capability through our researchers and infrastructure,” she said.

Times Higher Education spokesman Phil Baty said Australia continued to offer some of the world’s best universities, but that this year’s index sent “serious warning signs”.

“Australian universities are losing ground in … their global academic reputation, funding levels and, perhaps most alarmingly, in areas of great traditional strength: international research collaboration and the attraction of international talent,” Baty said.

The index’s authors found the global academic reputations and funding levels of Australian universities were sliding, and the British magazine warned of worse to come, with the federal government’s cuts to international student numbers expected to increase pressure.

But federal Education Minister Jason Clare also warned about putting too much emphasis on ratings.

“Universities are not just about rankings, they should be about students,” he said.

“They should be about helping more Australian students from all walks of life – from the city and the bush – get a crack at uni and ultimately build a career.

“We’ve got a good higher education system in Australia, but the truth is, it can be a lot better and fairer.

“That’s what the Universities Accord reforms I am implementing are all about.”

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