London, 9^th June 2021: QS Quacquarelli Symonds, global higher education analysts, has  released the eighteenth edition of the world’s most-consulted international university rankings. The 2022 edition of the QS World University Rankings sees all four of Australia’s highest-ranked universities improve their position, more of its entrants rise than fall, and Australian National University (ANU) break back into the global top-30 (27^th).

Also shining at the upper end of the 2022 QS World University Rankings are:

• The University of Melbourne, which has risen from 41^st to 37^th.
• The University of Sydney, which has risen from 40^th to 38^th.
• The University of New South Wales, rising from 44^th to 43^rd.
• The University of Queensland, which ranks 47^th.

Further down the rankings, two Australian institutions have also achieved their best performance in over a decade. They are:

• Curtin University (194^th), which has re-entered the top 200 for the first time since 2006, and for only the fourth time in the history of the rankings. It has improved its employer recognition score over the last year and is now one of the world’s top 100 universities by research impact (84^th for Citations per Faculty).
• Macquarie University (200^th), which has jumped 14 places to enter the top-200 for the first time since 2009. It has improved its performance in both of QS’s reputational indicators, which survey institutional esteem among academics and employers; and has enhanced its research impact score.

Overall, QS rank 38 Australian universities in this year’s table: the ninth-highest total of any country or territory. Of these 38:

• 16 have improved their position over the last year.
• 11 have declined in rank.
• Nine neither improve nor decline in rank.
• Two – University of the Sunshine Coast and University of Notre Dame Australia – make their debut in the QS World University Rankings.

A full list of Australia’s ranked universities can be found below.

Australia: Inside The Data

• Australian National University’s rise is based on improvements in its employer recognition score, its research performance – it ranks 38^th for QS’s Citations per Faculty metric – and on its perfect International Faculty
• The strong performance of the Australian higher education sector in this year’s edition is based on impressive research impact scores. Eleven of the world’s top 100 scores for QS’s measure of research impact, Citations per Faculty, are achieved by Australian universities. Also achieving a top-50 score for Citations per Faculty are The University of Western Australia (40^th) and The University of New South Wales (44^th).
• The University of Melbourne achieves the world’s 17^th-best Academic Reputation score and has improved both its teaching capacity and research impact scores over the last year.
• The University of Sydney now achieves one of the world’s top 30 Employer Reputation scores (29^th) and has enjoyed a fifteen-place jump in the research impact indicator.
• The University of New South Wales ranks 32^nd for Employer Reputation and 44^th for Citations per Faculty.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieves a record-extending tenth consecutive year as world number-one. The University of Oxford has risen to 2^nd for the first time since 2006, while Stanford University and the University of Cambridge share 3^rd spot. Asia’s leading university is the National University of Singapore (11^th), while Mainland China is home to two of the world’s top twenty universities for the first time ever. The best university outside of the United Kingdom and United States is Switzerland’s ETH Zurich (8^th).

Ben Sowter, Director of Research at QS, said: “Australian successes in the QS World University Rankings are based on two key factors: outstanding research impact and high levels of internationalization. Eight Australian universities achieve perfect scores for our International Faculty Ratio indicator, and twelve achieve a score of 80/100 or above for International Student Ratio. In other words: the continued strength of Australian higher education is predicated on its enduring appeal to the global academic community.”

Sowter continued: “While the country has drawn well-deserved commendation from spectators across the world for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, falls in international enrolments – particularly from its two biggest markets, China and India will not only present a financial threat to its institutions – with international students contributing A$9.8 billion in revenue to Australia’s universities in 2019 alone – but will also jeopardize the intellectual diversity and exchange that are causing Australia’s institutions to thrive.”