Australia's Best Universities

top rule

The Good Oil

Ranking the world's universities is a big job, and a difficult one. It's impossible to say how far the concept is meaningful. Everyone would agree that some universities are better than others, but how do we measure the differences?

Three organisations have put their hands up to do the job:

You would think that some organisation in the USA would get into the world-ranking market, but we suspect that the idea that there might be universities of world-class stature outside the USA is so alien to the American mind, that they simply assume such an index would be redundant: just list all the universities in the USA. What others are there?

These ranking systems are the best we have, for all their defects. You can read a statistical comparison of the two here, and in this article in the Wikipedia. A more partisan and deranged-but nonetheless interesting-Wikipedia article can be found here.

As Aussies, we want to know where our universities stand. If you can't find your Aussie university here, you might want to rethink your educational choice. The lists rarely agree.

Updated Added rankings for 2012.

The ARWU rankings

The ARWU ranks the top 500 or so of the world's universities. In their analysis, Australia does surprisingly well: with a tiny 1.5% of global GDP and a minuscule 0.3% of global population, it has 3.8% of the world's top 500 universities. The table below shows the number of universities in the top 500, by country. There do seem to be a lot of Chinese universities, though, don't there?

Country No. in top 500
United States 150
China 42
United Kingdom 38
Germany 37
Canada 22
Japan 21
France 20
Italy 20
Australia 19
Netherlands 13
Spain 11
Sweden 11
South Korea 10
30 other countries 86

Number of universitiies in the ARWU top 500, by country.

We've read both a defence and critique of ARWU's methodology in one of our favourite journals, Scientometrics1. You can find a further critique by Richard Holmes of the University of Malaysia in the Asian Journal of University Education. He also has some comments about Australian universities at a blog. Well worth reading.

The ARWU does not supply a specific rank after number 100, only a grouping. Admittedly, the groupings are inconsistent from year to year, but what the hey.

University 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
University of Melbourne 79 73 75 62 60 57
Australian National University 57 59 59 59 70 64
University of Queensland 102-150 101-151 101-151 101-150 86 90
University of Sydney 102-150 97 94 92 96 93
University of Western Australia 102-150 101-151 101-151 101-150 102-150 96
Monash University 203-304 201-302 201-302 151-200 151-200 101-150
University of New South Wales 151-202 152-200 152-200 151-200 151-200 101-150
Macquarie University 202-304 201-302 201-302 201-300 201-300 201-300
University of Adelaide 151-202 201-302 201-302 201-300 201-300 201-300
Flinders University of South Australia 305-402 303-401 303-401 301-400 301-400 301-400
James Cook University 403-510 303-401 402-501 301-400 301-400 301-400
University of Newcastle 305-402 303-401 303-401 301-400 301-400 301-400
University of Tasmania 403-510 303-401 303-401 401-500 301-400 301-400
University of Wollongong 403-510 303-401 303-401 301-400 401-500 301-400
Swinburne University of Technology 402-501 401-500 401-500 301-400
Griffith University 401-500 301-400
Curtin University of Technology 402-501 401-500 401-500 401-500
La Trobe University 403-510 402-503 402-501 401-500 401-500 401-500
University of Technology, Sydney 401-500 401-500
Murdoch University 403-510
University of New England 403-510

The ARWU ranking of Australian universities.

The QS Topuniversities rankings

In 2011 QS Topuniversities described itself as the most trusted university ranking in the world. How that accolade was achieved, we know not. In 2012 they downgraded that to a more modest among the most trusted university rankings available.

There is no doubt that it's own website is No 1 for confusion. To add to that, QS Topuniversities has created a parallel ranking system in competition to itself called QS Stars. We have no idea what that means, and – from their own incoherent explanation – neither do they. We suspect it is a pet project of some senior executive's mistress, who wants to see their Swiss finishing school listed as a top university.

In 2007 QS Topuniversities ranked the top 200 of the world's universities, but expanded its purview so that by 2012 it ranked 700. QS Topuniversities ranks the Australian universities much, much higher than ARWU does. We are more than dubious.

The table below lists every Australian university that has appeared in any of their rankings.

We haven't seen anyone defend the QS Topuniversities rankings in any scholarly journal: for that you have to go to this lunatic's email.

University 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Australian National University 16 16 17 20 26 24
University of Melbourne 27 38 =36 38 31 36
University of Sydney 31 37 =36 37 38 39
University of Queensland 33 43 41 43 48 46
University of New South Wales 44 45 47 46 49 52
Monash University 43 47 45 61 60 61
University of Western Australia 64 83 84 89 73 79
University of Adelaide 62 106 81 103 92 102
Macquarie University 168 182 189 220 211 233
RMIT 200 206 223 228 246
Curtin University of Technology 232 =244 274 258 258
University of Wollongong 199 207 251 267 269 264
University of Newcastle 266 256 291 268
University of Canberra 279
Queensland University of Technology 195 212 =244 289 267 281
University of Technology, Sydney 234 232 257 268 284
University of South Australia 303 295 281 256 293
Flinders University of South Australia 273 254 251 299 342
University of Tasmania 291 326 343 357
James Cook University 401-500 =355 352 362
Griffith University 325 291 346 368
La Trobe University 242 241 286 317 375
Bond University 380
Deakin University 396 =355 401-450 401-450
Murdoch University 401-500 401-500 451-500 501-550 401-450
Swinburne University of Technology 401-500 401-500 401-450 401-450 451-500
University of Western Sydney 601+ 601+

The QS Topuniversities ranking of Australian universities.

The THE World University Rankings

At first THES ranked only 200 universities, then expanded to the world's top 500 universities.It fessed up on its website that it had right-royally screwed up the 2010 rankings for the University of Oslo, Monash University, and the University of Adelaide. Given that, we find it a little hard to accept their self-description as the only global university performance tables to judge world class universities across all of their core missions – teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

University 2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013
University of Melbourne 36 37 28
Australian National University 43 38 37
University of Sydney 71 58 62
University of Queensland 81 74 65
University of New South Wales 152 173 85
Monash University 178 117 99
University of Adelaide 73 201-225 176
University of Western Australia 189 190
Macquarie University 226-250 251-275
Queensland University of Technology 276-300 251-275
University of Newcastle 276-300 276-300
Murdoch University 301-350
University of South Australia 351-400 301-350
University of Wollongong 251-275 301-350
Charles Darwin University 301-350 351-400
Deakin University 351-400 351-400
Flinders University of South Australia 351-400 351-400
University of Tasmania 301-350 351-400
University of Technology, Sydney 351-400
Curtin University of Technology 351-400
Griffith University 351-400
La Trobe University 351-400
Swinburne University of Technology 351-400

The THE World University Rankings ranking of Australian universities.


1. 'Academic ranking of world universities', Scientometrics (2005) 64(1):101; and 'Irreproducibility of the results of the Shanghai academic ranking of world universities', Scientometrics (2007) 72(1):25.