New Zealand Universities Shine In Latest International Rankings
universities-new-zealand-te-pokai-tara
Wed Jun 28 2023 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
New Zealand Universities Shine In Latest International Rankings
Wednesday, 28 June 2023, 10:26 am
Press Release: Universities New Zealand - Te Pokai Tara
All eight New Zealand universities have gone up in the rankings in the 2024 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings and all are in the top 500 universities in the world.
UNIVERSITY WORLD RANKINGS
2023
2024
Change
University of Auckland
87
68
+19
University of Otago
217
206
+11
Massey University
292
239
+53
Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington
275
241
+34
Waikato University
331
250
+81
University of Canterbury
284
256
+28
Lincoln University
368
362
+6
Auckland University of Technology
486
407
+79
The welcome result comes at a time when New Zealand universities have been struggling under increasing financial pressures.
QS Rankings compare subjects from over 1400 universities worldwide, and consider key indicators such as academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty research citations and impact. This year an additional three indicators have been included in QS’s methodology: international research network, employment outcomes, and sustainability.
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Universities New Zealand Chief Executive Chris Whelan says, “The updated approach has had a positive impact on how New Zealand’s universities have fared in the rankings overall.”
“Before this year, QS was very focussed on research citations and academic reputations and they made up 60% of how rankings were assessed. By contrast, one of the things measured by QS that was really important to students was the reputation of the university with employers. This made up just 10% of the overall score awarded to a university.”
“From this year onwards, academic reputation drops from 40% to 30% and research citations remains at 20%. The reputation of a university with employers increases to 15% and several new metrics are added.”
Summary of Changes to QS ranking methodology
2022
2023
Academic reputation
40%
30%
Employer reputation
10%
15%
Faculty to student ratio
20%
10%
Citations per faculty
20%
20%
International faculty ratio
5%
5%
International student ratio
5%
5%
Employment outcomes
-
5% (new metric)
Sustainability
-
5% (new metric)
International research network
-
5% (new metric)
“QS’s new methodology is a better reflection of the things that most students care about and want to know when choosing where to study.”
“These are also things that New Zealand universities have always cared about and focussed on. We are not surprised that this change in methodology has resulted in such significant improvements to the rankings of New Zealand’s eight universities.”
Whelan says, “The big challenge now will be maintaining these rankings. Under the previous system our rankings were slowly dropping as a consequence of a fall in funding per student.
Other countries have been investing more in their universities and it’s been harder and harder to maintain the quality of our teaching and research.”
“For example, in 2019 funding per student was 27% higher in Australia, 60% higher in Canada, 73% higher in the United Kingdom, and 97% higher in the United States.”
Read the 2024 global QS rankings here.
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