Accolades for ACU researchers

A message from the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Wayne McKenna: The success of our research teams and individuals contributes to our growing international reputation in areas that align with our mission and identity.

In August, I reported ACU’s exceptional improvement in a number of recent world university rankings, including the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and the CWTS Leiden rankings. Adding to these achievements in September, ACU rose to the world’s top 300 universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2021. ACU’s rise in ranking to the 251–300 band was driven largely by a significant increase in our citations scores and saw the university move up two bands in one year.

Following our improved THE world university ranking scores for research, we may anticipate similar results for our 2021 subject rankings when they are released at the end of October.

Leaders in their field

The Australian has once again named ACU’s health and social science researchers as outstanding leaders in their fields in this year’s Research magazine. Professor Herb Marsh and Professor Richard Ryan from the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, along with Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research Professor James Sallis, were each named Research Superstars on the Lifetime Achievers Leaderboard in their respective areas of educational psychology, social psychology, and public health. Dr Theresa Dicke from the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education was named Rising Star in educational psychology on the Early Achievers Leaderboard. Professor Luc van Loon from the Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research and Professor Bob Lingard from the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education were named Field Leader in their respective fields of Nutrition Science and Educational Administration. ACU was also named Lead Institution in Educational Psychology, Psychology, and Gender Studies. The data is based on the most citations in the top 20 journals in the field over the past five years.

Our humanities and education researchers have received the highest recognition in government and industry awards. In the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor Kate Fullagar has won the General History Prize in the NSW Premier's History Awards for her book The Warrior, the Voyager, and the Artist: Three lives in an age of empire (Yale University Press).

In the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Director Professor Claire Wyatt-Smith’s Graduate Teacher Performance Assessment (GPTA) team – which won the Vice-Chancellor’s Medal for Excellence in 2018 – is now a finalist for two major industry awards. Drawing on data from the GPTA, the Evidence for Quality in Initial Teacher Education (EQuITE) is a finalist in the Australian Financial Review Higher Education Awards (Education Technology category) and the International e-Learning Excellence Awards.

Supporting the common good

The success of our research teams and individuals contributes to our growing international reputation in areas that align with our mission and identity. In coming weeks, there will be opportunities to learn how ACU’s research supports the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals as part of a university-wide approach to sustainability. This includes investment in our higher degree research (HDR) program and providing scholarship opportunities for HDR candidates in our designated areas of research.