QS World University Rankings 2011 Australia

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In tough times, good news comes for Australian institutions in Eighth QS World University Rankings®

- Eighth annual QS World University Rankings® sees all of the Group of Eight featured in the top 300

- Australian National University (26) remains Australia’s best-performing university but falls by 6 places.

- Seventeen Australian institutions featured in the top 300

- Based on six indicators including surveys of over 33,000 global academics and 16,000 graduate employers, the largest of their kind ever conducted

- New in 2011: results published alongside comparative international tuition fee on www.topuniversities.com

Australian institutions in the top 300 of the 2011/2012 QS World University Rankings®20112010Institution NameRANKRANK 26 20 Australian National University (ANU)31 38 The University of Melbourne38 37 The University of Sydney48 43 The University of Queensland (UQ)49 46 The University of New South Wales (UNSW)60 61 Monash University73 89 The University of Western Australia (UWA)92 103 The University of Adelaide211 220 Macquarie University228 224 RMIT University256=281 University of South Australia (UniSA)258 274 Curtin University (formerly: Curtin University of Technology)267 289 Queensland University of Technology (QUT)268 257 University of Technology, Sydney (UTS)269 267=University of Wollongong291 256 University of Newcastle299 251 Flinders University

As Australian universities brace themselves for a downturn in market share of international students, the 2011 QS World University Rankings® delivers confirmation of the system’s continued global competitiveness and appeal.

The Group of Eight institutions lead the way with all members now appearing in the top 100, and five in the top 50. ANU remains at the head of the group in 26th position and the University of Melbourne has made the most progress, moving up seven places to 31st. Beyond the Group of Eight, Macquarie University is next, having moved up nine places to 211, and the five institutions in the Australian Technology Network are prominent. In total 17 Australian universities appear in the top 600 ranked institutions.

“This result sets Australian higher education among the leading systems in the world and is just the type of message the sector will want to project worldwide,” says John Molony, vice president of QS. “The QS rankings include the results of the largest ever surveys on the opinion of academics and employers, and the millions of internationally mobile students who read the tables will clearly see that both groups, the professors and the bosses, rate Australian institutions highly.”

“For a small collective to represent 10% of the total in the top 50 ranked institutions and 8% in the top 100 is an excellent achievement,” Molony continues.

Ben Sowter, head of research at QS says, “In whichever evaluations you refer to in recent times, the QS World University Rankings® by Subject, The Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative, or the Shanghai rankings, the University of Melbourne keeps getting stronger. The Melbourne brand is well established internationally as shown in our global employer survey which includes over 13,000 responses and rates Melbourne equal 4th preference for graduate recruitment with only Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge ahead of it.”

2011 is the eighth year that QS has published its World University Rankings, which have become established as the most widely-read university comparison of their kind. They are based on six indicators and were this year compiled following surveys of over 32,000 academics and 16,000 employers, the largest of their kind ever conducted.

Full methodology and results are available on www.topuniversities.com alongside comparative tuition fees data around institutions from around the world. Results of the full top 700 institutions will be published a week after the top 300 on the 12th of September.

-ENDS-

Notes to editors

QS Quacquarelli Symonds

Since 1990, QS has become established as the world’s leading network for top careers and education. Producers of the QS World University Rankings®, QS’s innovative research, events, publications and university solutions provide new ways of bringing universities into contact with the best and brightest students worldwide.

QS World University Rankings®

The QS World University Rankings ® is an annual league table of the top 600 universities in the world and is arguably the best-known and respected ranking of its kind. Compiled by the QS Intelligence Unit in close consultation with an international advisory board of leading academics, the QS World University Rankings ® is widely referenced by prospective and current students, university professionals and governments worldwide. The purpose of the rankings has been to recognise universities as the multi-faceted organisations they are and to provide a global comparison of their success against the notional mission of remaining or becoming world-class. The rankings are based on four key pillars, research, teaching, employability and internationalisation.

Scopus Database from Elsevier

QS Rankings use citation data from Scopus which is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and quality Web sources. Its unique database contains abstracts and references from over 18,000 titles from more than 5,000 international publishers, ensuring broad interdisciplinary coverage. Scopus is a trusted source of bibliometric data, also used by many other organisations including: the OECD, the Australian Research Council, iFQ (Institut für Forschungsinformation und Qualitätssicherung) and ISTEP (National Institute of Science and Technology Policy of Japan).

QS World University Rankings 2011 Australia

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