University of Auckland rises in QS World Rankings
The University of Auckland has again been ranked internationally as New Zealand’s leading university in the latest
rankings published this week by QS World University Rankings.
In the 2015 QS World University Rankings released today, the University rises to 82= from its 2014 position of 92.
Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon says: “This improvement in ranking, while important to the University’s
international (and increasingly domestic) student marketing, comes about mainly because QS has introduced a significant
change in methodology. This year, QS changed the way it calculates rankings and reduced the weighting given to citations
in medicine and the life sciences. This brings it closer to other ranking systems in the treatment of citations.
“The new methodology better recognises the University of Auckland’s comprehensive delivery and contribution to knowledge
across all five of the broad faculty areas.”
Rather than the “citations per faculty member” approach in use since its inception in 2004, the new methodology balances
the distribution of citations across five broad faculty areas: Life Sciences & Medicine; Natural Sciences; Engineering & Technology; Social Sciences; and Arts & Humanities. Other adjustments have been made to take account of material that is published in languages other than
English.
This means, according to QS, that “the citation score for Institutions with an emphasis on Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities and Engineering & Technology will be likely to rise, and the advantage hitherto afforded to those with a disproportionate reliance on a
strong medical school will be neutralised.”
The 2015 rankings of the other New Zealand universities (with 2014 rankings in brackets) are: Otago, 173 (159);
Canterbury, 211 (242); Victoria, 229 (275); Massey, 337 (346); Waikato, 338 (401-410); Lincoln, 373 (411-420); and AUT,
481-490 (501-550).
ENDS