Auckland moves up world uni ranking

The University of Auckland has moved up a list of the world's top universities, and remains the only New Zealand university to rank in the top 100.

Auckland University was equal 61st on the list published in London's Times Higher Education, up from 65th place last year.

The university peaked at 46th in 2006. Otago University was equal 79th that year, but dropped to equal 124th last year and fell another place to 125th this year.

The full list of the top 200 universities also has the University of Canterbury in 188th place.

University of Auckland vice-chancellor Professor Stuart McCutcheon said the institution had focused on achieving excellence rather than simply becoming larger.

"These latest rankings reflect our standing among our international peers, and also highlight the many teaching and research achievements of our staff and the esteem in which they are held."

The university was placed in the top 50 in the world in three subject rankings - arts and humanities (42nd), life sciences and biomedicine (40th) and social sciences 37th.

It was 55th in engineering and IT, and 83rd in natural sciences.

"While we recognise that these rankings do fluctuate year to year, nonetheless it is an incredible achievement, particularly as New Zealand invests less per student or per staff member in its universities than any other Western country," said Professor McCutcheon.

"Clearly our education system delivers value for money and an internationally-respected university that ranks among the best in the world."

The top places in the rankings were dominated by United States and British institutions with Harvard in the United States top.

It was followed by Cambridge (UK), Yale (US) and Universal College of London. Imperial College London and Oxford were equal fifth.

The leading Australian institutions were the Australian National University (17th) and University of Sydney and University of Melbourne (equal 36th).

The rankings were based on survey responses from 9386 academics and 3281 employers.

- NZPA