11 October 2012

The University of Queensland is now ranked fifth in the world in the area of environment and ecology and has further improved its rankings in the world's top 100 universities in another world university ranking system announced this week.

UQ was awarded a world ranking of 72 – up from 76 last year — in the 2012 Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities released by the National Taiwan University.

In field and subject rankings, UQ improved its rank to 5 in the world for environment and ecology, to be one of only two top 10 institutions in Australia.

UQ’s outstanding performance also included top 20 places in civil engineering (11); agriculture (12); and plant and animal science (18).

UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Høj congratulated UQ researchers on their strong performance in all the rankings systems this year.

“I thank staff for the quality of their publications and the sustained effort which made this outcome possible," he said.

“UQ has steadily improved its position in the Taiwan ranking program each year, advancing 41 places to be ranked 72 in the world from a ranking of 113 in 2007.

“This year UQ ranks eighth in the Asia-Pacific region and is one of Australia’s top three universities.

"This recognition comes on top of the University's top 100 performance this year in the Times Higher Education university rankings, the QS World University rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities,” Professor Høj said.

From 2007-2010 the Taiwan program was called the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan Ranking.

The ranking evaluates performance of universities based on scientific papers by assessing research productivity, research impact, and research excellence.

People wishing to learn more about studying at The University of Queensland can attend a UQ Options evening on Wednesday December 19, 2012 from 4pm to 7pm at the UQ Centre, Union Road, St Lucia, following the release of Queensland Year 12 results on Saturday, December 15.

UQ's Options Evening in December is designed to help guide students and their parents through the range of study choices available at UQ.

• For details of the range of undergraduate and postgraduate programs offered by UQ, visit www.uq.edu.au/study
• People interested in undertaking research higher degrees at UQ should visit www.uq.edu.au/grad-school
• Information for international students is at www.uq.edu.au/international

Media: Jan King 0413 601 248.