Six Australian universities are among the best 100 in the world, according to the 2022 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, released this month.
The University of Melbourne remains Australia’s top-ranked institution, coming in at 33 on the list.
Australian National University and the University of Queensland were ranked equal 54th, while Monash University (57), the University of Sydney (58) and the University of New South Wales (70) were the nation’s other standout performers.
Australia remains one of the best-represented countries in the rankings, with 12 institutions in the top 200. It came in fourth after the United States (57 in the top 200), the United Kingdom (28) and Germany (22).
Despite the pressures of the pandemic, more than one-third of Australia’s 37 ranked universities improved their standing since last year, while seven lost ground.
THE Chief Knowledge Officer described the results as “strong and stable” given increased competition at the top of the table.
Globally, the University of Oxford topped the list for the sixth consecutive year, with the California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Stanford University and the University of Cambridge rounding out the top five.
This year, the THE rankings assessed more than 1600 universities across 99 countries and territories. The institutions are judged based on 13 performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.
COVID research drives results
David Watkins, Head of Data Science at THE said universities that published medical sciences research relating to COVID-19 saw a significant boost in their citation impact in the 2022 rankings.
This led to 19 institutions rising significantly compared to their 2021 performance, including Capital Medical University, Wenzhou Medical University and Wuhan University, which are all in mainland China.
“Research into the disease, and especially work on vaccines, was heavily funded and prioritised, and some papers have attracted more than 20,000 citations within a year of publication,” Watkins said.
“Because THE uses a five-year window for publications, we believe that this effect will remain noticeable in the rankings for some time, and it is likely that otherCOVID-related effects, such as reputational impact (both positive and negative) and income, will also become visible.”
2022 THE World University Rankings top 10:
- University of Oxford, UK
- California Institute of Technology, US
- Harvard University, US
- Stanford University, US
- University of Cambridge, UK; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US
- Princeton University, US
- University of California, Berkeley, US
- Yale University, US
- The University of Chicago, US
View the full 2022 Times Higher Education World University Rankings.