The University of Queensland has again been independently ranked as one of Australia’s best universities.
The 2007 edition of The Good Universities Guide, released today, awarded UQ the maximum five-star rating for six key performance indicators.
They included student demand, positive graduate outcomes (reflecting both graduate employment and going on to further study), staff qualifications, research grants, research intensivity and toughness to get in (St Lucia campus).
Last year UQ was the only Queensland university included in the top 50 universities in the world in the annual top 200 ranking, produced by the UK`s Times Higher Education Supplement.
This week it was announced as being among the top five Australian universities of the top 100 Asia Pacific universities in the Shanghai Jiao Tong University's rankings, based on academic and research performance.
This week’s new ranking is by the Good Universities Guide, an independent consumer guide which provides ratings, rankings, comment and information about Australian higher education institutions.
UQ was the only Queensland university to receive the highest rating for research grants and research intensivity.
It was one of only three Queensland universities (the others being Bond and Central Queensland University) to receive the highest rating for positive graduate outcomes.
UQ was also among just eight universities nationally to score the top rating for research grants: the others were Adelaide, ANU, Melbourne, Monash, Sydney, the University of New South Wales and University of Western Australia.
Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay AC welcomed the independent assessment of the University`s high quality standing.
“This is the 10th consecutive year that the Good Universities Guide has assessed UQ as being at the top of the State`s academic and student demand hierarchies,” he said.
“The University focuses both on achieving the highest quality teaching and research excellence.
“Our staff members have earned far more national teaching awards than any other Australian university.
“UQ is a founding member of the Group of Eight, a group of Australian universities which conducts 70 percent of all university research in Australia.
“It is also one of only three Australian members of Universitas 21 – an international network of comprehensive, research-intensive universities committed to quality through benchmarking against world-best practice.
“UQ is ranked among the nation`s top two or three research universities on most performance indicators. We are building a cluster of international-quality research centres and institutes that will keep UQ at the frontiers of emerging research fields.”
Professor Hay said UQ attracted 66 percent of the State’s most academically able OP1 students.
He said the Good Universities Guide’s assessment reflected the University`s track record of performance and its attractiveness to students, its first-class facilities, its exceptional research performance and the outstanding success of graduates in gaining employment and access to advanced study.
Students can find out more about UQ at Open Days UQ Ipswich (August 20, 10am-2pm) and at UQ Gatton (August 27, 9.30am-3pm). Visit www.uq.edu.au/opendays for more details.
Media: for more information, contact Jan King at UQ Communications, telephone 0413 601 248.
