Posts Tagged ‘Shanghai Jiao Tong’
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 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Zurich is the best university in Switzerland according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). The ARWU is published by the Institute of Higher Education at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University and several indicators of academic or research performance are used to establish the ranking, these include highly cited researchers, articles indexed in major citation indices and staff winning Nobel Prizes.
There are eight Swiss universities in the Word’s Top-500 universities (2008). The Top-5 universities in Switzerland are: 1.Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Zurich (ranked 24th in the world); 2. University of Zurich (ranked 53rd); 3. University of Basel (87th); 4. University of Geneva (101-151th) and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Lausanne (101-151th). Switzerland has a very high density of the world’s top universities, with 1.1 ARWU universities per 1 million inhabitants .
The S F I T – Zurich (ETHZ) is a specialised university. It mainly covers science and technology, with 16 departments that teach mainly in the engineering sciences and architecture, system-oriented sciences, mathematics and natural sciences fields.
The S F Institute of Technology – Zurich was established in 1855 and is a federally funded university. The only other university that is federally funded in Switzerland is the Swiss Institute of Technology – Lausanne (a ‘sister’ university). All other universities are funded at a cantonal level (regional level). Federal funding means the university is a national institution and this gives it a broader and more open educational mandate.
The total number of students at the S F I T – Zurich is 15,093 (roughly 50% undergraduates and 50% graduates). The university has two main campuses: one in the city centre and the other at Honggerberg. The city centre campus is on the top of a hill overlooking the city of Zurich. It sits alongside the Main Building of the University of Zurich, a university that has many links to Institute of Technology Swiss Federal – Zurich.