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 2006 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 six key performance indicators including 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).
UQ was the only Queensland university to receive the highest rating for research grants and research intensivity. It was one of only two Queensland universities (the other being 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 ANU, Macquarie, Melbourne, Monash, Sydney, Tasmania, 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 ninth 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. UQ academics have won awards in each of the seven years since the Australian Awards for University Teaching were introduced, including winning the Prime Minister’s Australian Award for Individual University Teacher of the Year three times.
“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.”
“Today 38,000 students are enrolled at the University, including 6300 international students. The University offers more than 4000 courses and 380 programs.”
Professor Hay 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 St Lucia (August 7), UQ Ipswich (August 21) and at UQ Gatton (August 28). Visit www.uq.edu.au/opendays for more details.
Media: for more information, contact Jan King at UQ Communications, telephone 07 3365 1120, mobile 0413 601 248.
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