ANU continues excellence in uni rankings

The Australian National University is continuing its rankings run. Times Higher Education has rated it the most international university in Australia. THE today unveiled the 2016 list of the 200 most international universities in the world. Australia has 24 listed, making it the second most represented nation behind the UK. Universities Australia have welcomed the overall result. ANU topped Australian universities by coming in 25th. Curtin University came close behind at 26th. The University of Melbourne – which topped the list of Australian universities represented in THE’s World University Rankings last year – came 67th. Professor Brian Schmidt, ANU vice-chancellor, said the rankings reflected his university's international impact. “ANU is doing its part to bring Canberra to the world and the world to Canberra,” Schmidt said. Professor Deborah Terry, Curtin University vice-chancellor, said her university is "one of the most outward looking institutions in the world." Last year, ANU led the Australian Research Council's Excellence in Research Australian rankings, along with leading Australia in THE’s global graduate employability index. It also became the first domestic institution to crack the top 20 of QS’s World University Rankings. THE rankings editor Phil Baty said international presence and excellence don’t always correlate. “The overall World University Rankings were looking at 13 different performance indicators,” Baty explained. “We're looking at not just international focus of the university; we're looking at excellence, and we're looking [quite a bit] at research excellence and the quality of your research, the power of the university's reputation. There isn't a direct correlation between being very international and being excellent.” The rankings took into account the universities' proportion of international staff, proportion of international students, and how much of their research was carried out in international collaboration. Qatar University came first overall, knocking off five-time leader Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, which dropped to fourth place. Qatar is the first Middle Eastern university to top the rankings. The full list can be viewed here.