As school leavers prepare to receive their final year results, The Australian Financial Review today launches the most comprehensive university ranking ever compiled in Australia, revealing the University of Queensland as the country’s best learning institution.

Spread over a 12-page liftout, the Financial Review Best Universities Ranking is the first time the full diversity of Australian universities has been ranked using a more thorough range of measures compared to traditional rankings featured in overseas mastheads.

Calculating a university’s rank based on five categories, Best Universities Ranking recognises traditional notions of excellence, such as research performance and global reputation, alongside important measures of career impact, student satisfaction, and access and equity.

The University of Queensland has taken out the top spot, marginally beating the University of NSW, with Australian National University coming third, Monash University placed fourth and the University of Adelaide fifth. The rankings also highlight a boon for Queensland higher education, with Bond University and Central Queensland University rating highly. 

While the Top 10 list is dominated by universities in NSW and Victoria, institutions in Western Australia, Canberra, South Australia and Queensland also feature. 

Cosima Marriner, Managing Editor of the Financial Review, said: “This ranking is important because it helps potential students understand university excellence in a more holistic sense. At the AFR, we are particularly focused on research performance and student experience as two of the most important benchmarks of university quality. They often don’t co-exist, which is an interesting aspect of the Australian higher education system.”

Professor Deborah Terry, vice-chancellor of the University of Queensland said: “The issue with the global rankings is that the only metric they can really use for comparability is research. The ways in which student satisfaction, student experience and career outcomes are assessed across jurisdictions will vary.”

“I commend the Financial Review for trying to have a more balanced ranking system. And for a considerable period of time, UQ has always celebrated and valued teaching excellence, and the quality of our student experience.”

Created in consultation with former legal academic and vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra Professor Stephen Parker, and statistician and former deputy vice-chancellor of research at La Trobe University Professor Tim Brown, the Best Universities Ranking uses only credible and verifiable public data that minimises selective use of information. Most international rankings require institutions to share data with the rating agency.  

HIGHEST RANKED UNIVERSITIES
1 – The University of Queensland 
2 – University of NSW
3 – The Australian National University
4 – Monash University 
5 – The University of Adelaide
6 – Edith Cowan University
Equal 7 – Deakin University, The University of Melbourne, University of Technology Sydney & University of Wollongong

For further information, please contact:
Adrian Motte
Senior Communications Manager – Trade & Publishing
amotte@nine.com.au

Wednesday, November 22, 2023