The results of the 2011 Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Rankings of World Universities prove the Australian federal government’s higher education policy is working, research minister Kim Carr has said.
According to The Australian, Carr argued that the appearance of more Australian institutions in this year’s top 200 shows that his government’s work in gearing higher education towards global competitiveness had been a success.
“The federal government fulfilled its end of the bargain and it’s quite clear that the university system is fulfilling its end of the bargain,” he said.
In the 2011 ranking, the University of Melbourne climbed two places to 60th in the world while the University of Queensland broke into the top 100 for the first time. Griffith University in Queensland and the University of Technology, Sydney, made it into the top 500 for the first time. However, the Australian National University dropped 11 places to No. 70.
Ross Milbourne, vice-chancellor of UTS, told the newspaper that his institution’s strong performance was achieved despite a lack of government funding.
“It shows what the Australian system can produce with the limited resources we have,” he was quoted as saying on 18 August. “Think how much better we could be if resources were at the right level.”