The Australian National University lost its top spot on the QS World University Rankings 2024 as the higher education specialist firm announced new metrics for calculation.
The ANU dropped to 34th place after ranking highest among Australian universities and 30th in the world in the 2023 rankings.
The University of Canberra climbed 81 spots and placed 421st in the latest edition.
In exciting news, three Australian universities cracked the top 20 worldwide ranks. The University of Melbourne placed 14th after previously ranking 33rd in the world, while the University of New South Wales and University of Sydney both ranked 19th worldwide.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology maintained its number one global ranking for the 12th consecutive year, followed by University of Cambridge and University of Oxford.
Quacquarelli Symonds put forward its biggest methodological enhancement in the new rankings by introducing three new metrics - sustainability, employment outcomes and international research.
"[Universities] must commit to sustainability, foster graduate employability, and intensify international collaboration to address the world's pressing challenges," QS senior vice president Ben Sowter said.
"QS has incorporated these crucial emerging aspects into the QS World University Rankings, reflecting the evolving dynamics of the higher education landscape."
A spokesperson from the Australian National University said the rankings' evolving methodologies tended to recognise scale and ANU had chosen to retain its "unique" human-scale.
"We want to be the university that provides a transformational, not a transactional, experience. That's why we're so proud that this week's QILT Student Experience Survey data shows ANU is Australia's number one research-intensive (Go8) university for undergraduate student experience," they said.
Professor Lucy Johnston, deputy vice-chancellor of research and enterprise at the University of Canberra, said she was pleased to see the institution achieve its "best result" in 10 years since participating in the rankings.
In the latest edition, 33 Australian universities ranked higher while five ranked lower than they did in the 2023 rankings.
Australia also received the highest average scores for international faculty and international student ratio indicators, making it the world's top study destination.
The Canberra Times understands the latest world rankings were still affected by the COVID pandemic.
Mr Sowter said the ranking metrics tended to look slightly into the past. Universities around the world that provided data from their latest annual reporting period, between the 2021-2022 academic year, would still reflect pandemic numbers.
"It's inevitable that particularly in our international measures, the evidence and impact of the pandemic will still be there ... the speed with which different parts of the world have opened up has been variable as well," he said.
"We would expect over the next one to three years to see a little bit more flux in the international measures than we've seen in the past."
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