What Are the Best Universities in Australia? The QS World Rankings Are In!

The QS World Rankings are determined on a number of different categories, including academic and employer reputation, citations per faculty, student to staff ratio, international reputation and international faculty and student numbers.

There were several surprises in this year’s recent rankings, including The University of Sydney upstaging Cambridge University and Oxford to join four other Australian Universities in the top 50 in the world.

The Australian National University proudly entered the top 20 in the world, moving up two spots from the year before to be seen with the likes of MIT, Stanford and Harvard University who take out the overall top three.

In all, Australian University rankings are on the rise across the board, with a few exceptions. Deakin University for example, moved up 62 places to make the top 300. There were a few to decline in rank, including Charles Sturt University and Curtin University, who still continue to perform well in areas like mining and distance education.

Melbourne also took out the fifth position in the ‘Top Student Cities’ ranking worldwide, which is highly promising for future international student numbers to the Universities that call Melbourne home, including the University of Melbourne which was ranked 41st in the world, the second highest in the country.

Employability of a University’s graduates is also a big factor of the quality education that can be expected at a Uni, and on that front, Australia performed rather well on the global stage. The University of Sydney was ranked 4th in the world for this category, with the University of Melbourne 11th, narrowly missing the top ten by Princeton University. Four Australian Universities were ranked in the top 50 for employability, including The Australian National University (ANU) and Monash.

Other interesting changes include Monash rising into 60th position in the world, as well as becoming the second best school for Pharmacy and 29th in Medicine. Swinburne University of Technology also improved it’s overall ranking, now situated in the top 450 in the world. It’s also improved in another QS ranking area, the Top 50 Under 50, which focuses on the performance of younger Universities, those under 50 years old. Southern Cross, Griffith and Murdoch University are all in this category as well.

The QS World Rankings also provide a great way for students to see the overall rankings for Universities in Australia, as opposed to just their strengths in a certain subject or faculty. The introduction of the QS Star Ratings provides a simple overview of a University across the board. Only 18 Universities in the World have a ‘QS 5 Star Plus’ Rating, the highest to achieve.

The 2018 results show five Universities in Australia with this ranking, which is the highest of any other country. Not all Universities have or will be ranked this way, such as the University of Melbourne which ranks exceptionally well across a number of fronts, but choose not to be assessed by the Star Rating System. The rating is determined in areas including:

• Research
• Teaching
• Employability
• Internationalization
• Facilities
• Online/ Distance Learning
• Social Responsibility
• Social Responsibility
• Arts & Culture
• Inclusiveness
• Specialist Criteria

Want to know which Universities specialise in certain subjects or fields? Here’s the top 3 in Australia, as well as their overall World ranking for the subject.