10 of world’s 50 leading universities in the UK, study finds

The University of Ottawa has plummeted 66 places in an annual British ranking of the world’s top universities.

“While rankings can move around from year to year, the latest results are a great endorsement of the hard work and commitment of our staff and students, who all contribute to make ANU one of best places in the world to study and conduct research”, said Professor Young, who is shortly to hand over the vice chancellorship to the ANU’s Nobel prize-winning astrophysicist Brian Schmidt.

Among the nine Taiwanese universities in the global rankings, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology had the biggest improvement, rising 111 notches on the 2015 list.

Outside of Cardiff no other Welsh university features in the world’s top 200 but Swansea and Aberystwyth are among those reporting notable strides up the QS table.

The updated rankings show that while Trinity College Dublin is still Ireland’s highest placed university, the Dublin college has fallen from 71 place to 78 place.

Prof Riordan has described his university’s breakthrough into the UK’s top five for quality of research as a “game-changer” that would trigger newfound economic benefits. He noted that the implementation of the K to 12 program (adding two years to the basic education curriculum) and the advent this year of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Economic Community “demand that Philippine higher education step up in new and lasting ways”.

Three of the top Philippine universities suffered lower rankings in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings for 2015.

According to a statement it issued Monday, it bases its methodology on six indicators including academic reputation, employer reputation and faculty-to-student ratio.

The just-released ranking report sees all eight New Zealand universities back in the top 500, with Lincoln increasing its ranking from 411-420 a year ago, to 373.

Its Engineering and Technology faculties were also ranked 6th in the world this year, while Natural Sciences was in 15th place.

Australia is home to five of the world’s top 50 universities with the University of Melbourne at 42, the University of Sydney at 45, and the Universities of New South Wales and Queensland at equal 46.

QS head of research Ben Sowter said: “For example, the medical sciences account for 49 per cent of the citations in Scopus, the world’s largest citation database”.

The university also came in 9th globally in the Academic and Employers Reputation criteria.

The University of Warwick – part of the elite Russell Group – was ranked at 48.

“Be that as it may, the QS rankings are geared primarily as a tool by which global students can choose a school, thus the metrics are reflective of the market”, Mr. Badillo said.