Australia's top universities are revealed – as new data shows they are falling behind

Six Australian universities have been placed in the top 100 institutions in the latest global rankings – but the data shows nearly all of the country’s universities have dropped places.

The Times Higher Education’s (THE) 2024 global rankings, which rank all universities and colleges around the world, were released this week.

There were 1904 universities featured in this year’s rankings, including 37 institutions from Australia.

Almost all of Australia’s top universities fell in the rankings. Only one remained in the top 50 and six in the top 100.

The University of Melbourne was crowned the top institution in Australia with a global rank of 37. This was a drop of three places after it was previously ranked 34.

The University of Melbourne (pictured) was crowned the top institution in Australia with a global rank of 37

Monash University came in second place for the country with a rank of 54. The Melbourne-based institution fell 10 places.

Third place went to the University of Sydney, which ranked at 60. It dropped six places over the past year.

The Australian National University slotted in at fourth place. It has a global rank of 67 and was previously ranked 62.

The University of Queensland followed at fifth place with a rank of 70. It dropped a whopping 17 ranks. 

The University of Adelaide had the biggest fall out of all the Australian universities. It came in at joint 111th place after dropping 23 ranks. 

The annual THE list rates more than 1,500 universities from 93 countries and regions in five areas: teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry income. 

Phil Baty, THE chief global affairs officer, said Australia and New Zealand’s university rankings had been heavily affected by lockdowns imposed during the COVID pandemic.

‘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.

Monash University (pictured) came in second place for the country with a global rank of 54

Phil Baty, THE chief global affairs officer, said Australia and New Zealand ‘s university rankings had been heavily affected by lockdowns (pictured, Australian National University in Canberra)

‘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.’

Mr Baty noted that Australia scored high for research productivity and excellence but  suffered when it came to average international student metric score as less international students opted to study at Australian institutions.

He added that the country’s universities had to focus on being attractive to international students and continue investing in research.

‘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,’ he added. 

It’s the 20th year the THE has released its global rankings list.  

The University of Oxford took out first place globally in the latest results. It’s the ninth year in a row it has come out on top. 

The top 10 institutions in the global rankings featured seven from the US and three from the UK.