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Newcastle tops THE young ones
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Fourteen local unis make it into world’ s top 100 Under 50. By Antonia Maiolo
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Newcastle University is the top-ranked Australian entry in the latest league table of the world’ s best 100 institutions aged under 50, followed by 13 other local unis that also made the cut.
Newcastle gained 12 places on its finish last year, driving Queensland University of Technology out of first place for Australia, whilst also managing to rank 28th globally.
QUT came in second for Australia and placed 31st in the world, followed by Wollongong University in 33rd position.
In terms of national strength, Australia has challenged the UK, matching its 14 representatives in the table.
The Times Higher Education 100 Under 50 ranking looks to determine which institutions around the world under the age of 50 could compete as future higher education powerhouses. It takes into account performance, reputation and research capabilities.
Newcastle vice-chancellor professor Caroline McMillen said her university’ s global rankings have increased as a result of a focus on building performance and reputation across education and research.“ In just under 50 years, [ the University of Newcastle ] has built a remarkable track record of success by building research strengths, engaging with industry and working with outstanding international universities,” McMillen said.
She said it would be important, as governments across the world invest strongly in their universities, that Australia’ s investment strategy in higher education be sustainable and support the continued upwards trajectory of young and established universities.
“ The sustainability of Australia’ s standing in global higher education must not be based solely on capacity of a student to pay for a university education,” McMillen said.“ Many of our younger universities are located outside capital cities. By continuing to build the capacity of our top-performing young universities, we are fuelling economic growth and productivity in our regions and investing in their future.”
THE rankings editor Phil Baty commended Australia on its results.“ Not only does [ Australia ] have more top 100 institutions than any other nation bar the UK, but its representatives are also highly diverse in their profile, location and age,” Baty said.
He explained that with strong performers established in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Australia finds itself in a unique position,“ due to the fact that its universities’ foundation dates are very equally staged across the decades, with many of them far from their 50th birthday”.
In comparison, Baty said many of the UK’ s best young institutions will drop of out the table in three years, given a majority were born in the’ 60s.
“ Australia has a fairly young crop of universities in general, with nine of [ its ] 14 100 Under 50 Universities also being featured in the World University Rankings,” he said.
But Baty warned that Australia must not grow complacent and that the good news is overshadowed by the country’ s performance in the World University Rankings and the reputations tables, which suggest the nation’ s traditional leaders are losing ground.
“ With sector-wide funding cuts, there is a risk that the country’ s firm foundations could quickly be eroded,” he said.“ None of Australia’ s under-50 universities make the top of the table and there are many developing nations on its doorstep working
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hard to build highly competitive world-class research universities, backed by extremely generous funding and political support.”
Baty said it remains to be seen whether Australia’ s institutions can maintain their position.
The top 100 Under 50 list was dominated by East-Asian institutions, with universities from South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore claiming top-five positions.
Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea topped the rankings for the third year in a row, followed by Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland.
Other Australian universities that made the list include: Macquarie( 34), University of Technology, Sydney( 47), University of South Australia( 49), Deakin( 59), Murdoch( 60), Charles Darwin( 69), Curtin( 82), Flinders( 82), Griffith( 84), Western Sydney( 87) and La Trobe( 100). ■
For more on the THE results see, thewur. com campusreview. com. au | 5