University of Technology Sydney: Rising to the challenge
In the newly released eighteenth edition of the QS World University Rankings UTS has been named as the world’s 133rd best university, after placing equal 133rd in last year’s assessment.
Among the 1,300 institutions ranked by QS, UTS performed among the top 11 per cent, and was the ninth highest ranked Australian university.
Once again research was a strength for UTS in the QS ranking, with Citations per Faculty the strongest indicator for the university among the assessment criteria, with a rank of 77 globally.
The university’s research performance was more specifically assessed for the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2021, a world ranking of more than 1200 universities that focuses on scientific impact and research collaboration, released on 2 June.
The Leiden ranking for the fifth year placed UTS number one in Australia for the proportion of its research appearing in the top 10 per cent of most-cited publications in scientific fields.
In the face of the pandemic the university system as a whole has demonstrated how crucial it is to health and prosperity in Australia and around the world.
In an analysis of the results for Campus Morning Mail by Angel Calderon, only three Australian universities were placed in the world’s top 100 on the indicator of mean normalised citation score: UTS, the Australian Catholic University and Swinburne University. On this indicator UTS was the best performing Australian university with a rank of 56.
On the measure of the proportion of international collaboration UTS was the only Australian university which ranked in the world’s top 100, at 93.
UTS Vice-Chancellor Professor Attila Brungs said that while UTS did not focus on international rankings, they did serve as a “health-check”, providing useful benchmarking on how unis were performing on a range of key areas such as teaching, research and engagement.
“While the measures adopted by the various ranking systems may have limitations, they reflect the university’s capacity to deliver world-class education, research and engagement with real benefit for society,” Professor Brungs said.
“In the face of the pandemic the university system as a whole has demonstrated how crucial it is to health and prosperity in Australia and around the world.
“The challenges of the past year only serve to reinforce our core aims to be outward looking in the advancement of knowledge and learning through research-inspired teaching, research with impact and partnerships with industry, the professions and community.”