UniSC soars up the ranks of the world’s top young universities

The University of the Sunshine Coast has leapfrogged up the global rankings for the best young universities in the world.

In its highest ever ranking, UniSC moved 97 places to be in the top 110 institutions in the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Rankings, announced yesterday.

The impressive rise was spearheaded by an outstanding performance for research quality, with UniSC improving its score in this key category by 55 percent for the reach of its research and the impact it is having worldwide.

The University also received higher scores for its research environment, based on its global reputation, funding and productivity.

UniSC's Moreton Bay campus

The rankings use 13 performance indicators to assess more than 670 global universities that are 50 years or younger across research, teaching and international outlook.

Vice Chancellor and President, Professor Helen Bartlett, said that as a young university, UniSC continued to defy its age, delivering research with impact, championing sustainability, and empowering forward-thinking researchers, students and alumni.

"Our first campus on the Sunshine Coast only opened its doors in 1996. Now as one of Australia's fastest growing universities, we span five campuses across South East Queensland," she said.

"Our growth and continuous striving for improvement reflects our commitment to provide world-class education and research that bring about real, positive change - for our students and their futures, and our communities here at home and around the globe." 

The new rankings follow UniSC's success in the Times Higher Education World University rankings, announced late last year, where it improved its position among more than 1,900 of the world's universities by 22 percent.

Professor Bartlett said that the global impact of new ideas and knowledge being generated by UniSC was once again a key factor, with the University recording the biggest improvement in Australia for research quality and moving up more than 331 places in the world rank.

Nationally, the latest Good Universities Guide rates UniSC as Australia's number one public university for overall postgraduate student experience, and the second best nationwide for undergraduates.

It is also Australia's highest rated public university for postgraduate teaching quality, skills development and student support.