New Zealand universities place strongly in world quality rankings
Meghan Lawrence
New Zealand’s universities have continued to place among the best around the globe.
Now in its eighth year, the annual QS World University Rankings by Subject compares academic reputation, employer reputation, research citations and impact.
The scores cover survey responses from more than 170,000 academics and 158,000 employers worldwide. A total of 1130 institutions have been ranked across 48 subjects in five subject areas.
NZ’s universities placed in the Top 50 institutions for 32 subjects, four more than in 2017. Of those, 18 are taken by the University of Auckland — seen as a sign of its global competitiveness for a range of core disciplines.
Eight of NZ’s universities are ranked, with a total of 175 departments featured across the 48 tables.
Of these departments 49 Chris Whelan, Universities NZ improved their rank, while only 29 dropped in ranking.
The most-ranked universities — those who can lay claim to excellence in more subjects than their peers — are the University of Auckland, which is ranked in 40 disciplines, and the University of Otago, which is ranked in 33.
Universities NZ executive director Chris Whelan said the results were pleasing and demonstrate the commitment and resourcefulness of NZ institutions.
“They show why all eight of our universities are ranked in the top 3 per cent globally,” he said. “While we expect some changes from year to year due to sampling variances, the overall upwards trend is positive, and an across-the-board increase is welcome.
“The results show that everyone who gets an education at an NZ university is getting a world-class education.”
Whelan said it was good to see NZ universities ranked within the world’s top 500, and delivering teaching and research that competes with countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, all of which receive significantly more funding per student.
“Despite these positive results, we must not be complacent. If we are to improve or even maintain our rankings, we must increase investment in educational quality,” he said.
Globally, Harvard University is again the dominant institution, ranking number one for 14 subjects. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology follows closely behind with 12 number one departments.
Tess Nichol