Australia and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2011-12

The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings were developed in concert with the rankings data provider, Thomson Reuters, with expert input from more than 50 leading figures in the sector from 15 countries across every continent.

Their rankings of the top universities across the globe employ 13 separate performance indicators designed to capture the full range of university activities, from teaching to research to knowledge transfer. These 13 elements are brought together into five headline categories, which are:

Teaching — the learning environment (worth 30 per cent of the overall ranking score)
Research — volume, income and reputation (worth 30 per cent)
Citations — research influence (worth 30 per cent)
Industry income — innovation (worth 2.5 per cent)
International outlook — staff, students and research (worth 7.5 per cent).

The overall world top 200 rankings, the banded lists of a further 200 "best of the rest" universities, and the six tables showing the top 50 institutions by subject are based on criteria and weightings that were carefully selected after extensive consultation. We recognise that different users have different priorities, so to allow everyone to make the most of our exceptionally rich data and gain a personalised view of global higher education.

and the top 10 World University Rankings are...

1) California Institute of Technology (USA)
2) Harvard University (USA)
3)Stanford University (USA)
4) Oxford University (UK)
5) Princeton University (USA)
6) Cambridge University (UK)
7) MIT (USA)
8) Imperial College London (UK)
9) University of Chicago (USA)
10) UC Berkeley (USA)


and thos from Australia that appears in the list include
The University of Melbourne (37)
ANU (38)
The University of Queensland (74)

More information can be accessed at
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/top-400.html


I will write an analysis of the ranking and hopefully I can publish it in the media somewhere.


Nattavud Pimpa is a senior lecturer in international business at RMIT University, Australia.