Campus Review Vol 31. Issue 12 - December 2021 | Page 7

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NEWS
Rankings aren ’ t perfect . But they are the best surrogate measure of global standing we have .

Global standing

Australian universities continue to punch above their weight in ARTU rankings .
By Conor Burke

Australian universities continue to punch well above their weight , as a new ranking puts Australia third for the number of universities it has in the global top 200 .

The Aggregate Ranking of Top Universities ( ARTU ) 2021 rates universities by their performance in the three most influential rankings lists – Quacquarelli Symonds ( QS ), Times Higher Education ( THE ) and the Academic Ranking of World Universities ( ARWU ).
Australia had 13 institutions in the top 200 , coming behind only the US ( with 54 ) and the UK ( with 27 ).
Around 2052 universities were analysed from the rankings datasets and 400 universities made the ARTU list . This was the second year in a row that Australia had
13 unis in the top 200 and in comparison with other larger countries , such as Germany ( also 13 ), Australian universities continually performed at a high level .
The top ten was made up of the usual suspects , with Harvard topping the 200 followed by Stanford , MIT , Oxford , Cambridge , Caltech , UChicago , Princeton , Yale and Columbia .
The highest rated Australian Uni was , once again , the University of Melbourne ( 28th ), followed by University of Queensland ( 42nd ), Australian National University ( 44th ), University of Sydney ( 47th ), UNSW Sydney ( 50th ) and Monash University ( 57th ).
In 2021 , the University of Melbourne rose one place , University of Queensland rose three and UNSW rose two , while Monash University slipped two places .
The list , compiled by UNSW and now in its third year , was developed by the university to help overcome some of the flaws in singling out performance in any one ranking , according to UNSW president and vice-chancellor , Professor Ian Jacobs .
“ The problem with university benchmarking is that there are around a dozen rankings . Each is a variable mix of research , reputation and teaching metrics , leading to quite different and confusing results ,” he said .
“ This aggregated ARTU ranking helps broaden the range of assessment – from research citations and impact , to reputation , and qualitative as well as quantitative measures . It also helps address the inherent imperfections of any one of the individual ranking systems .
“ Rankings aren ’ t perfect . But they are the best surrogate measure of global standing we have and they are here to stay , whether we like them or loathe them .”
Professor Nicholas Fisk , Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research & Enterprise at UNSW said the list shows that Australian universities continually perform well against nations with better financed institutions .
“ Australia has fared well in the battle of the old versus the new order . Our universities in the top 200 have an average age of 86 compared to over two centuries for overseas universities in the top 200 ,” he said .
“ China has this disadvantage too . But China does have the benefit of a booming economy , which drives top-down investment in cutting-edge technologies and academic excellence through STEM [ science , technology , engineering and maths ] research at scale .” ■

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