Not bad for a country of only 20 million.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Top-marks-for-Australian-universitiess/2004/11/04/1099547322298.html


Top marks for Australian universities

November 4, 2004 - 10:05PM


Six Australian universities were named as among the best 50 in the world, with the Australian National University (ANU) the leading Australian institution at number 16.

Harvard University in the United States took number one spot and Britain's Oxford and Cambridge Universities were numbers five and six respectively, in the list by prestigious British journal The Times Higher Education Supplement.

The ANU beat New York's renowned Columbia University, which was placed 19th.
22nd, Monash University at 33, University of New South Wales (3
Six other Australian universities were in the top 50: University of Melbourne was 6), Sydney University (40) and Queensland University (49).The table ranks universities on the basis of a survey of 1,300 academics in 88 countries.

Other factors taken into account were the amount of cited research produced, the ratio of faculty to student numbers and an institution's attractiveness to foreign students and internationally renowned academics.

University of Melbourne was 22nd!

The only good thing about my old uni (Griffith Gold Coast) was the bar opened at 10am.

Why is Sydney Uni ranked so low? I thought Sydney uni is arguably no.1 uni in Australia when you see that almost all the famous unis around the world come from the capital city.

go UQ

Why is Sydney Uni ranked so low? I thought Sydney uni is arguably no.1 uni in Australia when you see that almost all the famous unis around the world come from the capital city.


For starters, Sydney aint the capital but maybe you meant the largest city.

lol @ the article. It doesn't even say who did the rankings or how.

For starters, Sydney aint the capital but maybe you meant the largest city.

LOL. I always get confused sorry for my ignorance in geography. :)

Australia = Canberra.
Brazil = Brasilia
USA = Washington

These three I should keep in mind. Hehe.

*double post*

barneybuck - I think there is something messed up with your bolded text in the first post.

full article

Top marks for Australian universities
Six Australian universities were named as among the best 50 in the world, with the Australian National University (ANU) the leading Australian institution at number 16.

Harvard University in the United States took number one spot and Britain's Oxford and Cambridge Universities were numbers five and six respectively, in the list by prestigious British journal The Times Higher Education Supplement.

The ANU beat New York's renowned Columbia University, which was placed 19th.

Six other Australian universities were in the top 50: University of Melbourne was 22nd, Monash University at 33, University of New South Wales (36), Sydney University (40) and Queensland University (49).

The table ranks universities on the basis of a survey of 1,300 academics in 88 countries.

Other factors taken into account were the amount of cited research produced, the ratio of faculty to student numbers and an institution's attractiveness to foreign students and internationally renowned academics.

THES editor John O'Leary said: "Leading universities increasingly define themselves in terms of international competition.

"By taking account of the views of academics from across five continents and using the most up-to-date statistics, our ranking gives an informed picture of the world's top universities," he added.

The full table shows that the top 200 universities are in just 29 countries, with the United States having 62, Britain 30, Germany 17 and Australia 14.

In an editorial the Times said: "Lists are invidious, and academics famously jealous.

"This survey will inevitably be criticised as biased towards the English-speaking world and to institutions that actively recruit students and staff abroad ... But the criteria used are relevant," it said.

The top 15 universities, in order, were: Harvard University, University of California (Berkeley), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California University of Technology, Oxford University, Cambridge University, Stanford University, Yale University, Princeton University, ETH Zurich (Switzerland), London School of Economics, Tokyo University, University of Chicago, Imperial College London and University of Texas at Austin.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Top-marks-for-Australian-universitiess/2004/11/04/1099547322298.html?oneclick=true

Where can I find the full top 50 list?

barneybuck - I think there is something messed up with your bolded text in the first post.
Sorry some how I cut out the first line about MU being # 22

Heres another angle with Australia having 14 entries in the top 200

US dominates worldwide league tables

Martin Ince
Published: 05 November 2004

Oxford and Cambridge universities are the only challengers to US domination of the leading places in the first global ranking of universities to sample the views of academics across the world.
Harvard University secures top place in the inaugural World University Rankings compiled by The Times Higher. Harvard beat by some distance the University of California, Berkeley, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology, which came in at second, third and fourth places respectively.

In fifth and sixth places, Oxford and Cambridge emerge as the highest ranked institutions outside the US. The London School of Economics and Imperial College are ranked 11th and 14th respectively.

The US boasts seven institutions among the top ten universities in the world. But the rankings, based on the opinions of academic experts and the latest measures of research excellence and teaching capacity, reveal an academic elite scattered across the globe.

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Tokyo University in Japan, Beijing University in China, the Australian National University and the National University of Singapore all feature in the top 20.

John Hood, vice-chancellor of Oxford, said: "This is a very welcome endorsement of our successes at Oxford and the transformation in our governance in recent years, led by my predecessors. It has been achieved in spite of serious under-resourcing and consequent overdependency on institutional reserves.

"Increased revenues from the Government's research policies and from fees will alleviate this pressure somewhat, but they will not be sufficient to maintain our international competitiveness against the aggressive investment trends across the Atlantic."

At the heart of the World University Rankings is an unprecedented survey of 1,300 academics in 88 countries, spanning the academic disciplines. The rankings are based on the latest and most robust measures of excellence.

These include the number of times that research papers published by academics are cited by colleagues - highlighting the intellectual clout of institutions. Universities also benefited from having high staff-to-student ratios - one of the most reliable indicators of commitment to teaching.

Lastly, institutions were rewarded for the numbers of students and staff recruited from overseas.

The full table shows that the top 200 universities are to be found in 29 countries, with the US, the UK, Germany and Australia especially dominant.

They have 62, 30, 17 and 14 entries respectively.
Sir Howard Newby, chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, welcomed the analysis. He said: "I hope it will stimulate debate in the UK on our performance against world standards and how we can improve it to maintain our competitiveness."

Richard Lambert, the Treasury adviser whose 2003 report on university-industry links recommended the compilation of international university rankings, said: "It is good for the UK to be benchmarked against the best universities in the world. It is government policy to ensure that the UK has world-class universities. So we need a way of telling whether it is worth investing more in the system. It is also in the public interest to see that our higher education system remains world-class."

In the coming months, The Times Higher will publish detailed world university rankings for the main academic subjects.

Gogogogo Monash at 33 and Melbourne having the top two in Australia :)

on a per population basis we have more top 200 unis than US UK or Germany. I wonder if that means anything?

Why is Sydney Uni ranked so low? I thought Sydney uni is arguably no.1 uni in Australia when you see that almost all the famous unis around the world come from the capital city.

The ANU is based in Canberra - which is Australia's Capital City. Sydney is the Capital of NSW