QS World University Ranking sees five Australian institutions among top 50

Updated

Five Australian universities have been named among the top 50 higher education institutions according to a major global ranking, but industry experts warn the Government's proposed budget reforms could have a detrimental impact in years to come.

The QS World University Ranking is one measure of universities' international reputations, compiled annually by the research unit of international education and employment company, QS.

Did your campus crack the top 100? Institution Rank The Australian National University 20 The University of Melbourne 41 The University of New South Wales 45 The University of Queensland 47 The University of Sydney 50 Monash University 60 The University of Western Australia 93



The company's London-based head of research, Ben Sowter, says there are many ways to assess global university rankings but Australia's tertiary education sector is doing particularly well across all measures.

QS surveyed more than 75,000 academics and more than 40,000 employers, to assess university reputation across four areas: teaching, research, internalisation and employability outcomes.

"Simply put, Australia's had a great year in terms of our metrics," Mr Sowter said.

"The vast majority of Australian universities are moving upwards, with only a handful of exceptions."

The Australian National University (ANU) leads Australia's institutions, climbing one spot into 20th place among nearly 1,000 international higher education institutions.

This year seven Australian universities made the top 100 — that's up from six in last year's list.

The University of Sydney was the only Australian institution to slip down the list.

America's Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, topped the global list followed by Stanford and Harvard. Cambridge, Oxford and University College London also made the top 10.

Global conditions favour Australia

Senator Simon Birmingham said the QS ranking outcome is a great endorsement of the quality of Australian tertiary education.

"It helps to drive the number of people that come to Australia and helps to sustain a $21—22 billion export industry that is incredibly important," Senator Birmingham said.

Mr Sowter agreed that Australian institutions benefited from the country's education export industry, adding that global conditions and political uncertainty have favoured Australia in particular.

For Australian universities to compete in a global market for international students, reputation is a key drawcard.

Speaking in regard to the rise of populist politicians and Britain's decision to leave the Eurozone, Mr Sowter said:

"Those are symptoms of something as well as likely to be causes for a continuation, so I think we're going to see the UK and US lose market share in international students at an accelerated rate over the next five years."

'Risk reaching a tipping point', industry peak body warns

But Belinda Robinson, the chief executive of the industry peak body Universities Australia, warns proposed government funding cuts could risk damaging the international reputation of Australia's education system.\

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The Government announced in the budget it intended to impose an "efficiencies dividend" on higher education, which would reduce the level of revenue to the university system by about $1 billion.

"That comes on top of $3.9 billion that's been stripped out of the system over the past six years," Ms Robinson said.

"We know we've also got one of the most efficient systems in the world — there's another series of rankings that tell us that — but … if we're not careful we will risk reaching a tipping point beyond which it will be very difficult to recover.

"We are really putting at risk the quality of the university system and the quality of the offering, which is the very thing that attracts university students to Australia."

Senator Birmingham defended the Government's proposed university savings plan, saying that funding was not being stripped from the sector.

"I think it's really important that the university sector doesn't talk themselves down," Senator Birmingham said.

"All the Government is proposing is a slightly slower rate of growth that will still see some $4 billion or a further 23 per cent growth in taxpayer support over the next four years."

Despite uncertainty over the future of the sector, Ms Robinson said the report was a positive indication of the achievement of Australian universities against some of the world's oldest and most renowned institutions.

"What we know from this report is that Australia has made better progress and more impressive progress than any other nation of a similar size," Ms Robinson said.

Topics: university-and-further-education, education-industry, industry, education, australia

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