What are the top ten Australian Universities? There is no official government ranking of universities in Australia. However there is a number of university league tables produced every year by relevant bodies such as the Melbourne Institute, The Australian Newspaper, The Good Universities Guide, THES and Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s academic ranking of world universities.
The Melbourne Institute (operated by the University of Melbourne) has produced its own ranking of the international standing of Australian universities. This ranking is based on a number of performance indicators such as international standing of staff, views of Deans and CEOs, resources, undergraduate programs, undergraduate intake and graduate programs.
According to Melbourne Institute 2007 the top ten Australian Universities (in order of ranking) are: Australian National University (ANU), University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, University of Queensland, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Monash University, University of Western Australia (UWA), University of Adelaide, Macquarie University and Queensland University of Technology. From this ranking ANU was the number one Australian university in terms of international standing and reputation, followed by Melbourne and Sydney. Is this result representative? Here we will analyze and compare it with the other two famous international league tables – THES and Academic ranking of world universities (ARWU).
Ranking Comparison:
- The list of top four universities produced by the Melbourne Institute are the same in ranking order as THES and ARWU 2007. We are confident to say that they are the Best Four – ANU, Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland.
- Group of Eight (Go8) Universities are among the top 8 universities as ranked by the three different league tables. These include the Best Four and the rest of the group – UNSW, Monash, UWA and Adelaide.
- Macquarie and QUT are among the top ten list (after Go8) in the Melbourne Institute and THES league tables.
The practice of technology transfer can greatly benefit an organization. What is technology transfer? It is the sharing of technology between two or more organizations. Usually, one organisation has developed a new technology and licenses it to the other organization, whose goal is to commercialize that technology. For instance, a university who has developed a new technology may license that technology to businesses so that the businesses can develop the new technology into a product, process, application, or service.
Who are the organizations who are involved in technology transfer? Universities and other primary research organisations regularly license their technologies to businesses. Also, businesses involved in different fields may benefit from this sharing.
Parties on both sides of an agreement benefit. The researchers who developed the technology earn licensing fees, and the organisation who has licensed it can develop and manufacture it into a patented product or service to be sold, while avoiding rising research and development costs.
Many opportunities have emerged because of tech transfer. Fields like biotechnology and diagnostics, pharmaceutical drug discovery, energy and engineering, and microelectronics and optoelectronics are all making use of technology transfer. Researchers can now develop a technology, and then license it out so that organisations with other specialized skill sets can take it further. Researchers may be looking for organisations who can further develop the technology. These organisations may have superior manufacturing, marketing, and distribution capabilities.
Tech transfer also occurs so that the technology can be applied in different fields than what is was designed as well. The researchers may have developed and been able to use the technology in one field, but license it out for use in other fields. For instance, the developer of the technology might be capable of exploiting the technology in diagnostic applications, but might not have the capability to exploit it in therapeutic applications, so they could license it out to a therapeutic application focused organisation. Finding available tech transfer opportunities and capitalising on them may be just what your organisation needs to develop that new product or service that you’ve been searching for.
What concerns me is what technology may be doing to our brain. Read Gary Small’s book, iBrain, and you will have to agree that our brain is indeed evolving. Two brains that start off the same at birth can be drastically different at two years of age if one has been deprived of play, talk, touch, love, proper food and so on. That’s been known for a long time. What is more surprising is that the adult brain remains malleable – “neuroplasticity” is the term used – as we grow older, and it continues to rewire itself throughout life. That’s good news for old folks like me because it means you can become smarter the older you get. We used to think intelligence was 80% genetic and 20% environmental, but it’s actually the opposite.
The bad news is that chronic Internet users and high-tech users tend to have poorer social skills and less ability to focus, and take on traits normally found in people with ADHD.
Excessive TV, video games and other digital media has been shown to contribute to ADD and ADHD in both children and adults. About 5% of children in the U.S. have ADHD. But with the advent of technology, and our increasing addiction to it, this is changing. Psychiatric investigators in South Korea find that 20% of Internet-addicted children and teens end up with ADHD symptoms. Dr. Edward Hallowell, a psychiatrist in Sudbury, Mass., and author of several books on ADD/ADHD, sees a lot of patients wrapped up in this multitasking mania. Over the past decade he has seen a tenfold increase in the number of patients showing up with symptoms closely resembling ADD, but of the work-induced variety. They were irritable, their productivity was declining, they couldn’t get organized, they were making quick, off the cuff decisions – all because they felt pressured to get things done quickly. He gave the condition a name – Attention Deficit Trait (ADT). Several books on brain research indicate that high-tech gadgets, video games and even TV have been shown to contribute to ADD in both adults and children. Incidentally, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends zero TV for children under two, yet one in five American children under two has a TV in their bedroom.
An example of how our brains can be rewired is described in John Medina’s book, Brain Rules. A year 2000 study of London taxi drivers revealed that they had a much larger posterior hippocampus than men with a similar profile, but who did not drive for a living. That part of the hippocampus is responsible for a person’s navigational skills. As far as our brain is concerned, it seems to hold true that if we don’t use it, we lose it. Another example appeared in the Toronto Star (December 12, 2009) It was an article on handwriting, which seems to have been replaced by the keyboard, at least with the younger generation. It concludes, based on research, that handwriting works the brain differently and builds distinct cognitive skills. It reinforces reading and spelling, develops motor memory as it becomes automatic, teaches students to focus, and may help them remember what they learn. So as keyboards replace handwriting, new neural pathways are created and new cognitive skills replace the old.
The brain is evolving. That may not be all bad. But I do know that managers require social and interpersonal skills, intuition and creativity to be successful. And focus is one of the keys to accomplishment. We should think twice before allowing time with email and the Internet to crowd out time with family and friends.
Top achievers combine high-tech with high touch. They interact socially, participate in face-to-face meetings, and even use paper-based systems such as the day planners or simple note pads as tools to get things done.
I will never apologize for scheduling in a paper day planner or drawing mind maps on a scratch pad or scribbling an idea on an index card. And I’m becoming more convinced that it helps us remain well-rounded individuals. Much of your intelligence – and how well you do in life – seems to depend on what researchers call the “executive function” part of the brain. It is that part of the brain in the cerebral cortex that gives you the ability to control impulses, sustain attention, hold an idea in your head, plan, and prioritize and so on. And it’s those executive functions that appear to be weak in individuals with ADD/ADHD. Too much technology could weaken these executive skills even more.