Phil Baty, Times Higher Education’s chief global affairs officer, said there was a global shift from long-established institutions of the West to rising stars of the East as the US and western European institutions lost ground to Chinese universities.
“But Australia is in a unique position, emerging strongly from stymied internationalisation during COVID to buck the Western trend and see solid improvements in the rankings this year,” he said.
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In the US, the Trump administration has frozen billions in research funding and revoked Harvard University’s ability to enrol international students.
“There’s a real opportunity for Australia, and indeed New Zealand, to capitalise on the shifting dynamics of global higher education,” Baty said.
The University of Melbourne was Australia’s top performer in 37th place thanks to improvement to teaching reputation and research reputation scores.
University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott commended his staff on its performance.
“This welcome recognition of our teaching excellence reflects our ongoing commitment to providing a transformative experience for our students, bolstered by our unprecedented investment in 220 new specialist education-focused roles through our Sydney Horizon Educators initiative,” he said.
UTS vice-chancellor Andrew Parfitt, whose institution recently proposed plans to shut its school of education, said the strong results reflected the excellence and hard work of academics and professional staff during a difficult time for universities.
“Our world-class expertise in disciplines ranging from artificial intelligence to nursing or delivering practical solutions with industry such as construction robots or coral reef restoration, are all examples of what we can be proud of at UTS,” he said.
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