NEWS
campusreview.com.au
ANU stays
strong in
rankings
Uni leads Australia in table of
most international institutions.
T
he Australian National University is
continuing its rankings run. Times
Higher Education has rated it the
most international university in Australia.
THE recently unveiled its 2016 list of the
200 most international universities in the
world. Australia has 24 of them, making
it the second most represented nation,
behind the UK. Universities Australia has
welcomed the result.
ANU topped Australian universities by
coming in 25. Curtin University came close
behind at 26. The University of Melbourne
– which topped the list of Australian
institutions represented in THE’s World
University Rankings last year – came 67.
ANU vice-chancellor professor Brian
Schmidt said the rankings reflected his
university’s international impact.
“ANU is doing its part to bring Canberra
to the world and the world to Canberra,”
Schmidt said.
Professor Deborah Terry, Curtin
University vice-chancellor, said
her institution was “one of the most
outward- looking” in the world.
Last year, ANU led the Australian
Research Council’s Excellence in Research
Australian rankings, along with leading
Australia in THE’s global graduate
employability index. It also became the first
domestic institution to crack the top 20 of
QS’s World University Rankings.
THE rankings editor Phil Baty said
international presence and excellence don’t
always correlate.
“The overall World University Rankings
were looking at 13 different performance
indicators,” Baty explained. “We’re looking at
not just international focus of the university;
we’re looking at excellence, and we’re
looking [quite a bit] at research excellence
and the quality of your research, the power
of the university’s reputation. There isn’t
a direct correlation between being very
international and being excellent.”
The rankings took into account the
universities’ proportion of international staff
and proportion of international students,
along with how much research was carried
out in international collaboration.
Qatar University came first overall,
knocking off five-time leader Switzerland’s
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne,
which fell to fourth place. Qatar is the first
Middle Eastern university to top the list. ■
Disabilities hinder work search
Survey finds attitudes, lack
of paid experience during
study years hurt chances.
J
ob hunting is notoriously frustrating,
and a recent survey has found it’s
worse for graduates with a disability.
The preliminary findings of Graduate
Careers Australia’s 2015 Australian Graduate
Survey – released in early January –
revealed 43.8 per cent of graduates with a
disability are still on the hunt for
full-time work four months after graduating,
compared with 31.2 per cent of graduates
overall. There were 42,134 graduates
participating in the survey; of this figure,
1164 had a disability.
Suzanne Colbert, chief executive of the
Australian Network on Disability – which
aims to get people with disabilities into jobs
– said graduates with disabilities were less
likely to be hired due to several factors.
“There is a substantial lack of understanding
[among employers] and still some attitudinal
barriers and lack of knowledge about the
support available,” Colbert explained. “Grads
2
are perhaps unaware of the importance of
paid work experience during their study time.”
Limited support for students with
disability, and other barriers to casual
employment, mean many can’t financially
afford to take up work experience, Colbert
said. She pointed out that there is federal
government support for employers who
hire those with a disability. Universities
should encourage students to take up work
experience and provide guidance, she said.
“Encourage them to take advantage of
internships and to help give advice about
being able to compete with the cohort,”
Colbert advised. “I think it’s often just a
matter of focus. When you’re studying,
often your focus is on getting through the
next semester, whereas I think having better
knowledge about how we make the linkage
from education to employment is such an
important transition.
“So getting some guidance and support
through careers advisors along the way,
so that you’re better prepared to make
that transition, and you’ve got some
relationships in place [is vital].” ■
See “Hard work finding a job”, page 27.