ACU’s world university rankings success

A message from the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Greg Craven.

It is with great pleasure that I announce ACU is now ranked in the world’s top 500 universities.

This is the third consecutive year ACU has risen in the rankings, and is recognition of our continued success in quality teaching and research on the world stage.

I am very proud of what ACU has been able to achieve in this short time. Our success in world rankings is further evidence of the University’s capacity for making a positive impact on students and society.

Rising up the ranks

The latest Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings placed ACU in the top 500 among global institutions. Within Australia, the University ranked joint 25 out of 35 ranked institutions, up a remarkable five places from last year.

ACU is ranked in the top 10 among Catholic universities globally, placing us among partners such as Boston College in the USA and the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Italy.

This is an outstanding result on a very competitive world stage, particularly when considering the relatively young age of the University. The ranking results are indicative of how much we have achieved since our establishment in 1991 and draw attention to our ever-improving research strengths, teaching quality, quality of our graduates and quality of overall institutional performance.

Making an impact

Rankings are more than just a number on a league table. Rankings assess, among other things, the quality of teaching and research at higher education institutions, through a variety of indicators.

ACU’s participation in the rankings opens many potential opportunities to bolster our status as one of the most significant Catholic universities in the world, a leader in our research specialisations and a University known for quality in teaching, learning, research and institutional performance.

The University has set out to achieve excellent outcomes, by investing in quality research and programs that will deliver genuinely valuable results for others. Our success on the world stage reflects the University’s unrelenting commitment to priority areas in health, education, theology and philosophy, social justice and the common good.

Making our mark internationally

ACU’s notable global ranking highlights include:

• positioned 401–500 in Times Higher Education World University Rankings
• positioned 501–600 in Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)
• a top 100 Asia Pacific (APAC) university, recognised as a leader in higher education in the region (Times Higher Education Asia-Pacific University Rankings 2018)
• recognised as one of the world’s top young universities, included in the top 50 of Generation Y and ranked 101–150 globally (Times Higher Education Young Universities Rankings 2018)
• ranked in the top 100 for a number of subjects:
  • sport science (26 ARWU)
  • nursing (41 ARWU)
  • education (51–75 ARWU)
  • theology, divinity and religious studies (top 100 QS Subject Rankings)

I would like to thank all staff who make the rankings possible and successful, from our exceptional research staff in our research institutes and centres, and teaching staff in our faculties, to the Office of Planning and Strategic Management (OPSM) staff who support the rankings process through overseeing the collection, analysis and submission of all institutional data.

For the University’s ranking highlights, please visit Excellence at ACU.