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?

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

These two 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.

We list here the rankings of the Australian universities from both ARWU and THE/QS, for all the years available (which isn't that many). If you can't find your Aussie university here, you might want to rethink your educational choice.

The ARWU and THE/QS lists rarely agree: many universities on one list are not on the other, let alone their relative position. Make up your own mind.

Updated Added ARWU rankings for 2009.

Contents

The ARWU rankings

The ARWU ranks the top 500 or so of the world's universities.

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 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Australian National University49th53rd56th54th57th59th59th
University of Melbourne92828278797375
University of Sydney102-151101-152101-152102-150102-1509794
University of Queensland102-151101-152101-152102-150102-150101-151101-151
University of Western Australia153-201153-202102-150102-150101-151101-151
University of New South Wales152-200153-201153-202151-200151-202152-200152-200
University of Adelaide201-250202-301203-300201-300151-202201-302201-302
Macquarie University300-350302-403203-300201-300202-304201-302201-302
Monash University152-200202-301203-300201-300203-304201-302201-302
Flinders University of South Australia404-502401-500401-500305-402303-401303-401
University of Newcastle351-400302-403301-400301-400305-402303-401303-401
University of Tasmania351-400302-403401-500401-500403-510303-401303-401
University of Wollongong403-510303-401303-401
James Cook University401-450401-500403-510303-401402-501
La Trobe University401-450404-502401-500301-400403-510402-503402-501
Curtin University of Technology402-501
Swinburne University of Technology402-501
Murdoch University404-502401-500401-500403-510
University of New England401-500403-510
University of the Sunshine Coast152-200

The ARWU ranking of Australian universities, from a global field of 510.

The THE/QS rankings

THE/QS ranks the top 200 of the world's universities, down to the very rank. THE/QS ranks the Australian universities much higher than ARWU does. We are more than dubious. The 2007 THE/QS ratings also place one Australian university as better than every university in Europe and every university in Japan. We don't think so.

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

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

University 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Australian National University 16th 23rd 16th 16th 16th
University of Sydney 40 38 35 31 37
University of Melbourne 22 19 22 27 38
University of Queensland 49 40 45 33 43
University of New South Wales 36 40 41 44 45
Monash University 33 34 38 43 47
University of Western Australia 96 80 111 64 83
University of Adelaide 56 80 105 62 106
Macquarie University 68 67 82 168 182
Queensland University of Technology 118 192 195
University of Wollongong 196 199
RMIT 55 82 146 200
Curtin University of Technology 76 101 156
University of Technology, Sydney 113 87
La Trobe University 142 98
University of Newcastle 127
University of South Australia 154
University of Tasmania 151 166

The THES/QS ranking of Australian universities, from a global field of 200.


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.

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