The University of Auckland ranked internationally as New Zealand's leading university

The University of Auckland has again been ranked internationally as New Zealand’s leading university in the latest rankings published this week by QS World University Rankings.

The University of Auckland was ranked at 83rd in the world, the first in New Zealand and 8th in Australasia. In the same rankings last year the University was ranked 82nd and although the University’s overall performance in the measures used by QS increased this was not accompanied by a rise in rankings as other Universities are improving more rapidly.

This result, which comes shortly after The University of Auckland became the first New Zealand university to enter the top 200 of the Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Rankings of World Universities, reflects the quality and hard work of the staff of The University of Auckland and the strategic focus that the University has placed upon ensuring a high level of performance. The University of Auckland’s major Faculty areas all ranked as being among the top 85 in the world with Social Sciences and Life Sciences and Medicine being ranked in the top 50. Importantly, Auckland’s performance in the measure of research impact, citations, improved significantly from last year.

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon says: “The performance of The University of Auckland is also notable in that it occurs despite our operating with some of the lowest levels of investment of any of the top 200 universities in the world.

“Over just the last four years, under-indexing by Government of the tuition subsidy and the constraints imposed on domestic fees have cost the University an average of $6m each year or cumulatively some 240 positions. This is not a situation we can continue to bear and still expect to maintain, let alone enhance, our world rankings.”

One other New Zealand university was placed in the top 200 in the 2012 QS World University Rankings – Otago (133), and two universities in the top 300 - Canterbury (221) and Victoria (237).