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Australia\u2019s top universities have slipped down the world\u2019s most prestigious academic league table, with every institution in the top 200 recording a lower rank compared to 12 months ago.<\/p>\n
The slide down the Times Higher Education rankings comes after an overhaul of the methodology used to score universities, but analysts say Australia\u2019s poor performance is because of a research funding shortfall as well as student to staff ratios, which are among the worst in the world.<\/p>\n
The University of Sydney dropped six places to rank 60th in the world, behind the University of Melbourne, which dropped three places to 37th on the list, while Monash University dropped 10 places to be ranked 54th in the world.<\/p>\n
Australian National University dropped five places to 67th spot, the University of NSW dropped 13 places to 84th and the University of Technology, Sydney dropped 15 places to rank 148th.<\/p>\n
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The University of Sydney is among the best 60 universities in the world \u2013\u00a0just \u2013but it has slipped in the rankings.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Flavio Brancaleone<\/cite><\/p>\n Times Higher Education chief global affairs officer Phil Baty said Australian universities had been outpaced by research investment of other institutions while a drop-off in international students from 30 to 26 per cent meant revenue and consequentially research funding had taken a hit.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen the rise of mainland Chinese and east Asian universities … Australia does not have the same level of the same drive and level of commitment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn addition, while the rankings show Australia has historically very high levels of research quality, current figures show a relative under-investment in research, which sends a clear red-light warning.\u201d<\/p>\n The student-to-staff ratio in Australian universities is among the worst in the world, with the index finding they are in the bottom 15 per cent of the 1900 institutions assessed.<\/p>\n \u201cStudent ratios were already low, but it has become lower because of a spate of redundancies at universities over the past few years,\u201d Baty said.<\/p>\n Oxford University\u2019s Professor of Higher Education Simon Marginson said he disliked the Times rankings because there was no rationale for the mix and ratio of the weightings. Meanwhile, he said survey responses from academics were subjective and often unduly amplified some trends.<\/p>\n \u201cThe country should worry about its research capacity \u2013 and the risks of an overdependence on market incomes in research \u2013 but the Times Higher ranking itself with its especially sudden lurches up and down is not the issue, and the down trend in 2023 is almost certainly exaggerated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Most top-ranked research countries had their science research funded by government, Marginson said. But in Australia, about 30 per cent of the research capacity of universities before the pandemic was being carried by international student fees. \u201cThe Australian formula worked fine as long as foreign fee revenues increase year-on-year, but markets have downs as well as ups.\u201d<\/p>\n University of Melbourne Professor Michael Wesley, who this year wrote a book Mind of the Nation: Universities in Australian Life<\/em>, cautioned that within Australia, a high ranking was not necessarily a proxy for a good education.<\/p>\n Professor Michael Wesley said wealthier universities had a greater capacity to embark on research, which in turn pushed them up rankings tables.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Arsineh Houspian<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cFor some students, the ranking matters and the prestige matters. But there will be a vast number who don\u2019t care and don\u2019t know and want a good accessible education,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is quite a clear correlation between the wealth of a university and the ability to conduct the sorts of activities that will bring it a higher ranking.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy own view is there is a great virtue in having a variety of higher education options\u2013 I don\u2019t think it is a bad thing that all Australian universities are not highly ranked.\u201d<\/p>\n The top universities internationally were the UK\u2019s Oxford University, followed by Stanford University in the US and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n There are numerous lists of university rankings published each year but within the academic world, the Times index is considered to be the most prestigious. Rankings are based on a mix of subjective and objective measures, including how often research is cited in publications and surveys of the opinions of academics across the globe.<\/p>\n The Quacquarelli Symonds rankings published earlier this year saw the University of Sydney and the University of NSW climb into the top 20, but that was after technical changes to how those rankings were calculated, including the introduction of a section on sustainability.<\/p>\n The Times rankings methodology was overhauled. From this year on, fewer academics were allowed to vote for their own university in the survey, the results of which make up about a third of an institution\u2019s score. How often a university\u2019s research is cited in patents went from making up 2.5 per cent of an institution\u2019s score to 4 per cent. Universities are scored across 18 indicators across the five pillars of teaching, research environment, research quality, industry and international outlook.<\/p>\n While the University of Sydney\u2019s overall rank had dropped slightly, its deputy vice-chancellor Professor Emma Johnston said its performance in a number of categories had lifted.<\/p>\n \u201cI was particularly pleased that the University of Sydney\u2019s highest ranked pillar is research environment, which saw us move from 62nd to 54th internationally,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cAustralia\u2019s future workforce will need education and expertise driven by the latest research, which is why we committed to research excellence, tackling the greatest challenges and contributing to the common good in our new 10-year strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n University of NSW Professor Nicholas Fisk, deputy vice chancellor research and enterprise, blamed the methodology overhaul for the drop in Australia\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n He pointed to issues with who could complete the institutional reputation surveys and questioned how staff-to-student ratios were calculated.<\/p>\n \u201cAnother manipulation was how the staff-student ratio was normalised. Australian universities suffered here even though they may have improved their actual ratio,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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