NZ universities confirmed as world-class

The results of the QS World University Rankings released today show that despite fierce competition internationally, six of New Zealand’s eight universities improved their rankings while the other two largely held their places. 

All eight universities are ranked among the top 3% of universities globally.

Chris Whelan, the Executive Director of Universities New Zealand, says this is an extraordinary result and something that New Zealanders should be proud of.

He says, “We are the only country in the world to have all our universities ranked within the top 500.  If you are a young New Zealander thinking about where to do a degree, you can be confident of getting a world-class education at any of our universities.”

In this year’s rankings, the University of Auckland remains New Zealand’s top ranked university at 81st place, followed by Otago, which has risen four places to 169th, with Canterbury at 214th, closely followed by Victoria at 228th.  Waikato has moved up 77 places over the past two years to rank at 324th, with Massey at 340th.  Lincoln has moved up 68 places in the past two years to be ranked at 343rd, while the Auckland University of Technology also made significant gains over the past two years, moving up 60 places to 441-450.

The QS rankings are an annual league table of the top universities in the world.  The rankings assess universities across four areas: research, resourcing, graduate employability and internationalisation.  The methodology consists of six indicators: the reputation of the institution among international academics (worth 40% of score), the extent to which the university’s research is cited internationally (20%), the reputation of the institution among employers of its graduates (10%), the proportion of teaching staff to students (20%), numbers of international students (5%) and numbers of international faculty (5%).

Chris Whelan noted that New Zealand universities performed particularly well in the areas associated with research.  “University Vice-Chancellors acknowledge that the government’s increased investment in research funding in recent years has made a difference and contributed to these strong results.”

“New Zealand universities had been dropping in rankings slowly but surely over much of the past decade.  Investment over the last few years in additional research and an increased focus on funding high quality research with real world benefits has contributed significantly to these ranking results.”

“New Zealand universities have not performed as well in areas such as the ratio of staff to students.  This reflects a sector that is under financial pressure and is now having to teach students at funding levels that are only 70% of comparable universities in countries like Australia and the United Kingdom.”

Despite an overall rise in this year’s rankings, most New Zealand universities saw a small drop in their QS employer reputation scores.  But Chris Whelan says this should not be confused as a proxy for employability. He suggests that this is due instead to how QS surveys employers.  High profile international universities score particularly well in these surveys despite often having worse graduate employment outcomes than lower-scoring universities.  There are also a lot more employers taking part in the surveys from countries like Latin America, Russia, India and China where most employers don’t know much about New Zealand and don’t think about this country when completing their surveys.

Chris Whelan says, “New Zealand universities do very well in employment outcomes for graduates.  97% find employment and around 90% are in degree-relevant employment within a couple of years of graduating.  Those are very strong results compared with other developed countries.”

“The Government’s recent increased investment in research has helped universities achieve this stellar rankings result.  We hope that this will encourage Government to increase investment in other parts of the university system under financial pressure, like faculty to student ratios, which would benefit students and would also improve these rankings.”

“Highly ranked universities are good for New Zealand,” Whelan says.  “Other highly ranked universities want to collaborate with us on research.  International students want to come and study with us.  We are able to attract and retain the best academic teachers and researchers.  We are able provide New Zealanders with a world class education and New Zealand industry with access to world class researchers and research facilities.”

This can be seen through statistics like these;

• Universities currently account for around 1.2% of New Zealand’s gross domestic product (GDP), but knowledge generated within universities over the past fifty years is estimated to be responsible cumulatively for another 9% of GDP.
• Universities attract around 26,000 international students every year, contributing a little over $1 billion dollars to the economy and creating an estimated 3,700 jobs for New Zealanders.
• The ideas and knowledge generated by universities generates around $500m annually.
• Graduates of New Zealand universities typically earn around $1.6m more over their working life than someone with just a high school qualification.  They have about a third the unemployment rates of people with just a high school qualification.

 

2016 ranking

The University of Auckland

2016 ranking: 81

2015 ranking: 82=

University of Otago

2016 ranking: 169

2015 ranking: 173=

University of Canterbury

2016 ranking: 214=

2015 ranking: 211

Victoria University of Wellington

2016 ranking: 228=

2015 ranking: 229=

University of Waikato

2016 ranking: 324

2015 ranking: 338=

Massey University

2016 ranking: 340=

2015 ranking: 337

Lincoln University

2016 ranking: 343=

2015 ranking: 373=

Auckland University of Technology

2016 ranking: 441-450

2015 ranking: 481-490

Background

Universities New Zealand is the peak sector body for New Zealand’s eight universities.

See more information about universities' initiatives to develop employable graduates.

Examples of university initiatives to increase graduate employability

• The University of Auckland has a practical work component for all professional degrees; in Engineering alone over 1,000 students are involved in practicums per year.  The University has piloted cross faculty internships for PhD students, and a work experience programme for undergraduate Māori and Pacific students.
• Auckland University of Technology has 39 Industry Advisory Committees, which were commended in its last academic audit for ensuring alignment of programmes with industry needs and ongoing relevance.
• At least 70 University of Waikato programmes offer work placement or a practicum component, which in one year exposed almost 2000 students to first-hand industry experience.
• Massey University has agreements with the New Zealand Defence Force, Customs and the Police involving defence and security studies.  It has forged relationships with regional and local policy makers to ensure it is aligned with their needs for knowledge transfer and the educational needs of regions.
• Victoria University of Wellington offers the “Victoria Plus” Programme to all students at any level to develop leadership, social responsibility and employability skills.  Similarly, Victoria’s “Alumni as Mentors” programme, sees alumni share post-study professional experiences with current university students in a one-to-one mentoring relationship to help graduates prepare for the world of work.
• In 2015 the University of Canterbury established a new Centre for Entrepreneurship to build and strengthen entrepreneurial and innovative capabilities and ultimate employability of its students.  The Centre offers both for-credit and extra-curricular options for students and builds on existing entrepreneurship and innovation courses and works with the long standing student-driven club, Entre, for budding entrepreneurs.
• Lincoln University together with three Crown Research Institutes and DairyNZ (the industry body for New Zealand’s dairy industry), have formed a hub aimed at exposing students and staff to leading employers and commercial practices.  The Hub will work very closely with industry, in the future increasingly exposing students and staff to leading employers and commercial practices. 
• The University of Otago’s Volunteer Centre connects community organisations with students who wish to develop their employment skills.  Otago also offers the “Passport to Employability” programme which works with employers to help students gain critical pre-employment skills.  Otago’s “International Get Job Ready” Coordinator, facilitates workshops designed to assist international students to transition successfully into the New Zealand work force.