Swinburne University of Technology has retained its placing in the world’s top 500 universities for the second year in a row.
Entering the prestigious Shanghai Jiao Tong world university rankings for the first time last year, Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young said the university calculated it had improved its performance and jumped 40 places over the last 12 months.
“Universities are evaluated on criteria such as the number of Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals won by staff and alumni, the number of highly cited researchers on staff, and the number of articles by faculty published in Nature and Science magazines.
“Swinburne’s move up the ladder proves the success of our focus on research and research infrastructure with our national rank placed at between 14 to 17, and high scores being achieved for the number of highly cited researchers on staff and the number of articles by faculty published in renowned academic magazines.”
Professor Young said that the rankings have very little weighting for the size of the institution – only 10 per cent – and therefore tend to work in the favour of bigger universities. He believes Swinburne is the smallest Australian university to be included in the rankings, adding to the significance of the achievement.
“Swinburne is the only dual-sector university in Australia to be ranked, showing that it is possible to have a research-intensive university and also a vocational approach to education,” he said.
The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) was first published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China in 2003, then updated on an annual basis. The rankings are increasingly seen as an important measure of a nation’s economic health and competitiveness.
Since last year it has been compiled by an independent organisation, the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy and was released this month by the Center for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Data from all universities worldwide are considered by the ARWU every year and the best 500 are ranked.
The complete lists and detailed methodology can be found at the Academic Ranking of World Universities website.