campusreview . com . au news
UTS in top 10
UTS maintains top 10 placing in Young University Rankings .
University of Technology Sydney ( UTS ) has retained its top- 10 position in the Times Higher Education ( THE ) Young University Rankings for 2022 , moving up one rung from last years ’ ranking to eighth place .
UTS was the only Australian institution in the top 10 of the global ranking of universities founded within the last 50 years , but it was joined in the top 20 by University of Canberra at 17 , also up one place from last year .
Queensland University of Technology just slipped out of the top-20 , at 21st position , following a placing of 17 last year .
Other Australian universities to make it into the top 50 of the rankings include University of Wollongong at 24 , Western Sydney University at 31 , Griffith University at 33 , Curtin University at equal 36 , Australian Catholic University at equal 39 , Deakin University at 42 and University of South Australia at 46 . Swinburne University of Technology jumped in to 50th place , up from 62 last year .
The number one ranking for 2022 was taken by last year ’ s second place-getter , France ’ s PSL Research University Paris , which swapped places with last year ’ s number one , Singapore ’ s Nanyang Technological University , now at number two .
China featured strongly in the top-10 , with The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology at number 3 , Hong Kong Polytechnic University at 5 and City University of Hong Kong in 10th place .
France is the most represented country in the top 10 with five universities placed .
In a potential changing of the guard India and Turkey have overtaken the UK to become the most represented countries in the full ranking , with 40 institutions each . The UK shares third place with Iran ( both with 37 universities ). ■
‘ Disappointing ’
UNSW wins bid to publish student evaluations .
UNSW has been given the green light to publish student course evaluation data following months of pushback from academic staff .
The Fair Work Commission upheld an appeal filed by university management after a December ruling thwarted UNSW plans to post evaluations online .
UNSW staff representatives from the National Tertiary Education Union ( NTEU ) said the call was a “ very disappointing decision ”.
“ The decision admitted that student evaluation data will be made public in a way that could allow individual staff members to be identifiable ,” said NTEU state secretary , associate professor Damien Cahill .
The university said it will only release quantitative data on courses taught by two or more staff .
The NTEU is concerned it will still be possible to identify individual academics , in breach of the UNSW enterprise agreement . Staff are also worried the publication of the data will reinforce bias against academics and lead to increased surveillance .
“ There ’ s a lot of well-documented scholarship showing that student evaluation surveys are subject to a range of biases , including gender and racial biases ,” Cahill said .
“ We also know that universities have increasingly used student evaluation data for performance management purposes and as benchmarks .
“ The danger is that people could take this data and use it to construct league tables and make it public .”
UNSW deputy vice-chancellor academic professor Merlin Crossley said the data will not be used as a performance index or as a disciplinary tool for academic staff .
He told Campus Review the idea to create a course evaluation website was based on student feedback .
“ Releasing the data is simply a courtesy to students , it will not affect the usual staff performance and promotion systems ,” Crossley said .
“ If particular courses are under-appreciated by students , we have a team that helps consider whether there are genuine issues to be addressed or not .” ■
5