University slips in global rankings
The University of Auckland has fallen nearly 30 places on the global list of best universities, and a spokesman is blaming government policy for the decline.
The latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings saw the university ranked at number 192 – down from last year’s ranking of 165.
The rankings list the top 980 universities in the world from a list of more than 16,000 institutions.
A University of Auckland spokesman said the institution was disappointed with the drop but still pleased to be ranked as the country’s leading university.
It was the only New Zealand university ranked in the top 200.
New Zealand universities had been slipping down the rankings over the past decade and the University of Auckland was not exempt from that trend, the spokesman said.
‘‘Our universities are forced by government policy to have some of the lowest levels of income per student in the world while other countries are investing heavily to improve their universities and take them up the rankings.’’
Tertiary Education Minister Paul Goldsmith rejected those comments, saying funding for the university sector had increased 24 per cent since 2008. Budget 2017 had $203 million investment in science and innovation, and $132m in tertiary education.