The University of Queensland has again received the best overall rating of all Queensland universities and one of the best Australian university rankings in the 2005 edition of the Good Universities Guide.
The independent consumer guide released this week provides ratings, rankings, comment and information about Australian higher education institutions.
UQ received the maximum five-star rating for eight main categories: prestige, getting a job, positive graduate outcomes, non-government earnings, student demand, research grants, research intensivity, and toughness to get in (St Lucia campus),.
UQ was the only Queensland university to receive the highest rating for prestige, getting a job, research grants, and research intensivity.
UQ was also among just eight universities nationally to score the top rating for prestige and research grants: the others were Adelaide, ANU, Melbourne, Monash, Sydney, the University of New South Wales and UWA.
Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield welcomed the independent assessment of the University’s high quality standing.
“This is the eighth consecutive year that the Good Universities Guide has assessed UQ at being at the top of the State’s academic and student status hierarchies,” he said.
“The University focuses both on achieving the highest quality teaching and research excellence. Our staff have earned more national teaching awards than any other Australian university and in 2003, for the second consecutive year, one of our staff members earned the Prime Minister’s Australian Award for Individual University Teacher of the Year.
“UQ is a member of the Group of Eight, a group of Australian universities which conducts 70 percent of all research in Australia. Therefore, our students have access to cutting-edge knowledge.
“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.
“Last year a major research cluster, the Queensland Bioscience Precinct, opened at UQ St Lucia while new research clusters such as the Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, the Queensland Brain Institute and the Sustainable Minerals Institute are under way.
“Today 34,000 students are enrolled at the University, including almost 8000 postgraduates. The University offers more than 5000 courses and 360 programs.”
Professor Greenfield said the 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 at UQ Ipswich (August 15 from 10am until 2pm) and at UQ Gatton (August 22 from 9.30am until 3pm). Visit www.uq.edu.au for more details.
Media: for more information, contact Jan King at UQ Communications, telephone 07 3365 1120, mobile 0413 601 248.
