The University of Western Australia jumped to 96 in the latest Academic Ranking of World Universities, known as the Shanghai ranking, up from a spot in the top 150 in last year’s league table.
The University of Melbourne remains the national leader at 57th in the world, up three places from 2011, followed by the Australian National University, University of Queensland, University of Sydney and the University of Western Australia.
Australia has the third highest number of universities in the top 100 this year, after the US and the UK.
The measure of research performance is compiled by the Shanghai Jiatong University. It was published on 15 August.