Last week, more than 1,300 higher education institutions from 92 countries, were recognised in the annual THE World University rankings.
The Rankings assess universities based on 13 performance indicators grouped into five areas: teaching (the learning environment); research (volume, income and reputation); citations (research influence); international outlook (staff, students and research) and industry income (knowledge transfer).
The University of Sydney showed major improvement in international outlook, with increases in all of the sub-indicators, as well as improvement in citations, teaching and research, ranking 60 in the world and first in the state.
Earlier this year, the University of Sydney moved into second place in Australia in the 2019 Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings – a ranking based on the results of an invitation-only academic opinion survey.
The University also ranked 25th out of more than 450 institutions in the 2019 Times Higher Education University Impact Ranking, which is a new ranking aimed at capturing universities’ impact on society.
The Educator spoke to University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Dr Michael Spence, to find out what is driving these impressive results.
Dr Spence said that over the past ten years the University has made a “concerted effort” to ensure it is in the best position to continue offering high-quality teaching and research.
“In that time, we tripled our research investment, including the establishment of a number of research fellowships, such as our SOAR and Robinson fellowships, designed to recognise our world-class academics and develop our early-career researchers,” Dr Spence told The Educator.
“We also worked to attract and retain outstanding researchers by offering opportunities to work across teams from different disciplines with the formation of multidisciplinary initiatives including the Charles Perkins Centre, Sydney Nano Institute, Brain and Mind Centre and the Sydney Policy Lab.”
Dr Spence said that within teaching, the University “completely reimagined” its undergraduate curriculum to recognise the changing nature of work, led by the introduction of our Bachelor of Advanced Studies in 2018.
“Finally, we focussed on breaking down long-standing institutional silos and barriers and imbuing a culture of excellence,” he said.
“This included simplifying our faculty structure from 16 to five and a move to encourage more collective decision-making amongst senior leadership, staff, students, alumni and external stakeholders.”
Dr Spence said that while the University is in a stronger position than it was a decade ago, it isn’t resting on its laurels.
“Our 2016–20 Strategic Plan looked to establish the University of Sydney as one of the best in Australia and a leading institution globally,” he said.
“Planning is already underway to engage the community in the next instalment of our strategy.”