Australia’s top universities have tumbled in Times Higher Education’s (THE) 2024 global rankings, prompting a “red light warning” for the country’s tertiary sector.
Almost all of Australia’s top 10 universities dropped places in this year’s ranking, with just one institution remaining in the top 50 and six in the top 100.
Phil Baty, THE’s chief global affairs officer, said Australia and New Zealand’s strict lockdowns weighed heavily on university performances.
“While Australia continues to boast many of the world’s very best universities, the data from this year’s World University Rankings provide serious warning signs,” he said.
“While Australia is one of the world’s leading university sectors for attracting international talent and collaboration, the relative isolation of the country during the pandemic is showing up in the data, to detrimental effect on universities’ ranking positions.”
The University of Melbourne remained the highest ranked university in Australia, sitting at 37, down three places from 2023.
Monash University came second, falling 10 places compared with last year to 54.
The University of Sydney was Australia’s third-highest-ranked institution, sitting at 60 globally after falling six places from a joint 54th in 2023.
Also in the top 100 were the Australian National University, falling five places to 62, the University of Queensland, tumbling 17 places to 70 and UNSW Sydney, down 13 places to 84.
The University of Adelaide experienced the most dramatic drop of any Australian institution, falling 23 places to sit at joint 111th place.
Now in its 20th year, THE rankings are recognised as one of the most rigorous global ranking assessments of research intensive universities, employing 18 performance indicators across teaching, research quality, research environment, international outlook and industry.
A record 1,904 universities were analysed globally in 2024, including 37 in Australia.
While Australia generally excelled in research productivity and excellence, it recorded the sharpest decline in its average international student metric score due to a reduction in overseas students.
Baty said “real attention” was needed to ensure Australia continued to be open and attractive to international talent.
“[This] includes the right policy incentives as competition for international talent heats up with possible shifts in the market,” he said.
“In addition, while the rankings show Australia has historically very high levels of research quality, current figures show a relative under-investment in research, which sends a clear red-light warning.
“What our biggest, most rigorous and authoritative rankings show is that you have to run very fast even just to stand still in an increasingly dynamic, competitive global higher education sector.”
The University of Oxford took out first place in the rankings for a record ninth year in a row, followed by Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Seven of the top 10 were in the US while three were in the UK.
Western nations continued to dominate the top spots, but Asia was the most represented continent globally, improving at a higher rate than any other region in its teaching and research quality.
In 2024, 737 Asian universities were ranked in 2024, a yearly increase of 89.
This year, a record 33 Asian universities made the global top 200, up from 28 last year. The vast majority were in China (13), followed by Japan (5).
With the THE result, the University of Melbourne remains the highest scored in Australia across the three largest global rankings – including Quacquarelli Symonds (14) and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (32).
Its vice-chancellor, Duncan Maskell, praised its high scoring in research-related indicators while saying each ranking had different approaches to measuring success.
“There are many surveys that are released during the year that rely on different methods to determine university rankings,” he said.
“Changes to these methods, which often increase or reduce the weighting applied to specific indicators, can have a positive or negative effect on rankings.”
