The University of Queensland has advanced nine places to be ranked 65 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012-13 released today.

UQ is one of six Australian universities ranked in the top 100, two more than last year.

UQ is ranked fourth in Australia and, over two years, has improved its world ranking by 16 places, from 81 in 2010.

The rankings also recognised UQ’s commitment to research excellence, with UQ achieving the third highest score for research impact in Australia.

UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor Debbie Terry said the improvement in rankings reaffirmed the University’s strong global performance.

“In our highly competitive global environment, any improvement by an Australian university is an achievement,” Professor Terry said.

“An improvement of this magnitude – 16 places in two years – is very significant, and reflects the excellence of UQ researchers and teachers.

“It is also a credit to former staff and students whose published research continues to influence our global position.

“As well, it speaks to the authenticity of internationalisation at UQ, and to the value of our partnerships.”

The Times Higher Education World editor at large Phil Baty said UQ’s achievement was “outstanding” in an increasingly competitive field.

“The top 100 universities represent just 0.5 per cent of the world’s higher education institutions, so UQ’s consolidation into that elite group is an outstanding achievement, especially given that there’s been heavy focus – backed by hard cash – on building more competitive world class universities in many of the Asian countries, so competition has been even tougher,” Mr Baty said.

“Australia’s strong performance is thanks to a very strong performance in research – and UQ is at the heart of that, registering the third highest score for research impact among all the Australian institutions.”

The Times Higher Education result is the third major, independent ranking to rate UQ in the world’s top 100 universities this year: the Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked UQ 90th and the QS World University rankings at 46th.

In September, UQ was also awarded a QS Five Stars Plus ranking, made to only 73 universities globally.

The THE rankings use 13 performance indicators, grouped into five broad categories:

• Teaching – the learning environment (worth 30 per cent of the overall ranking score) – UQ’s score was 54.4

• Research – volume, income and reputation (30 per cent) – UQ’s score was 66.1

• Citations – research influence (30 per cent) – UQ’s score was 69.6

• International outlook – staff, students and research (7.5 per cent) – UQ’s score was 77.8

• Industry income – innovation (2.5 per cent) – UQ’s score was 64.0

The 2012-13 THE World University Rankings also used the results of the annual invitation-only Academic Reputation Survey, carried out by Thomson Reuters and Ipsos.

UQ’s upcoming Options Evening is designed to help guide students and their parents through the range of study choices available at UQ.

• For details of the range of undergraduate and postgraduate programs offered by UQ, visit www.uq.edu.au/study

• People interested in undertaking research higher degrees at UQ should visit www.uq.edu.au/grad-school

• Information for international students is at www.uq.edu.au/international

Media: Tegan Taylor at UQ Communications (07 3346 7887 or t.taylor@uq.edu.au)