The University of Queensland has been awarded a QS Five Stars Plus ranking – made to only 73 universities globally.
UQ Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International) Dr Anna Ciccarelli has received the new award today during the European Association for International Education conference in Dublin.
The Stars ranking comes on top of today's announcement that UQ has improved by two places to a world ranking of 46 in the QS World University Rankings released in Dublin.
Of the Stars system, QS said that: “A typical five-star plus institution is not just world-class, but an elite destination to which the very best students and faculty worldwide will aspire.
“Its brand name will transform the résumé of anyone connected with it.”
The QS Stars system involves a detailed audit considering over 50 indicators of university quality.
Universities were evaluated against eight criteria: research quality, teaching quality, graduate employability, infrastructure, internationalisation, innovation & knowledge transfer, third mission and specialist subject criteria.
Each criterion has its own indicators, and weightings.
The QS report gave UQ the maximum number of points available (100 per cent) in the following areas:
Core criteria
• Teaching — Overall student satisfaction; Satisfaction with teaching
• Employability — Employer reputation
• Research — Academic reputation; Papers per faculty
• Internationalisation — Institutional research collaborations; International faculty; International students; Religious facilities; International diversity
• Learning environment — Sporting facilities; IT infrastructure; Library facilities; Medical facilities; Student societies;
Advanced criteria
• Innovation — Patents; Industrial research
• Access — Scholarships and bursaries; Gender balance; Low-income outreach
Specialist criteria
• Discipline rankings & Accreditations
UQ was awarded 907 points out of a possible 1000 points to achieve its Five Star Plus ranking.
The report has also identified some areas for even further improvements, including more incoming and outgoing student abroad activities.
