UNSW, University of Melbourne dip amid funding failures
The Center for World University Rankings says more than half of Australia’s universities have fallen in global rankings due to years of underfunding and the “devaluation of science and education as public goods”, hurting the country as a whole.
The University of NSW and the University of Melbourne remained at the top of the rankings for the second year in a row, ranking 52nd and 64th. The Australian National University dropped from 90 to 93, the University of Sydney dropped from 94 to 100, and the University of Queensland was in the top five for the second year in a row with 103.
World rankings are a key factor in many international students’ choices about where to study, and they are a major source of funding for Australia’s higher education institutions.
Sydney universities were in a mixed bag; University of Technology Sydney rose from 314 last year to 308 in 2026, Macquarie University fell from 341 to 344, Australian Catholic University jumped from 919 to 900 and Western Sydney University rose from 487 to 488.
In Melbourne, Monash University rose from 117 to 113, Deakin University rose 11 places to 354, RMIT rose from 424 to 417, La Trobe University rose from 460 to 463, Swinburne University of Technology rose from 499 to 497 and Victoria University dropped from 1105 to 1163.
The rankings come as Australian universities face a reckoning with major changes coming to funding for domestic students. great trust in international students AI’s changing role in teaching and learning as the government looks to reduce its numbers, and what’s on this week class size crisis.
Gwilym Croucher, deputy director of the Center for Higher Education Studies at the University of Melbourne, said the global education landscape was becoming more competitive.
“The short story is that we’re pretty lucky to have Australian troops. Most of the news from overseas is depressing,” he said.
In other parts of the world, the USA’s Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University ranked first in the global rankings, followed by the UK’s Cambridge University and Oxford University.
Ninety-eight percent of Chinese universities rose in the rankings, with Tsinghua University coming in at 36th, with the center attributing China’s success to continued investment in higher education.
President of the World University Rankings Center, Dr. Nadim Mahassen said the Australian government’s successive funding failures were devaluing universities and education.
“Australian universities are struggling to deliver high-quality education, attract and retain talent and produce quality research,” Mahassen said. “This is not just an academic problem, it is a national problem because the erosion of Australia’s higher education system is undermining scientific progress, innovation and the country’s long-term future.”
Education Minister Jason Clare said universities “must be about students, not just about rankings”.
“We have a good higher education system in Australia, but the reality is it could be much better and much fairer.”
Darshan Jones, a fourth-year science student at the University of Sydney, said his course offered “a lot of important things to learn”.
Freshmen Angelica Ryan and Eleanor Talevi signed up for extracurricular activities to supplement what they were learning in the classroom. Ryan, who is studying pharmacy, said: “I feel like we are both very involved in our communities. [including] scientific community.”
