Australia's universities see strong decline in global rankings

The QS World University Rankings 2026, released last week, show only two Australian universities, the University of Melbourne and UNSW Sydney, in the top 20.

In total, 25 of the 36 Australian institutions that made the ranking saw a drop in their positions compared to last year.

The University of Melbourne, Australia's highest-ranked institution, fell seven places to 19th. UNSW Sydney, the country's second-highest performer, dropped from 19th to 20th. The rankings are based on millions of academic papers and insights from 127,041 academics across 1,501 universities in 106 countries.

Following them is the University of Sydney, which dropped from 18th to 25th place.

Experts note that Australia's academic reputation, particularly among employers, has suffered, leading to lower rankings in these categories. The decline is also attributed to ongoing disruptions, including government policies impacting international students and the financial constraints faced by universities.

Recent discussions at the federal government level about limiting the number of international students have further complicated the situation.

"Organizational restructuring, staff movements, operational deficits and any kind of disruption are likely to influence institutional perceptions elsewhere," Angel Calderon, director of strategic insights at RMIT and a member of the rankings advisory board, told The Guardian.

He said that over the past five years, the reputation of Australian universities has gradually diminished.

The QS rankings evaluate universities based on a variety of criteria, including academic reputation, citations per faculty, employer reputation, employment outcomes, faculty-student ratio, international faculty ratio, research networks, international student diversity, and sustainability.

Australia experienced substantial setbacks in both academic and employer reputation, with 20 and 30 universities falling in rank in these areas, respectively. However, the country maintained a strong performance in citations per faculty and global engagement, particularly in relation to international faculty members.

Calderon pointed out that this decline coincided with the "rapid" improvement of universities in Asian countries, driven by increased investment from both government and the private sector in education and research.

"The results are a wake-up call to Australia ... our universities must adapt by providing quality education to the communities they serve if they want to remain competitive, relevant, and boost national productivity," Calderon said.

For the 14 consecutive year, the QS ranking has placed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology first, followed by Imperial College London and Stanford University of the U.S.

The decline in Australian universities' rankings comes amid global uncertainty and mixed messages from the U.S., Australia's largest research partner, said Vicki Thomson, chief executive of the Group of Eight, in an interview with Australian Financial Review (AFR).

QS chief executive Jessica Turner noted that Australia's strong performance in the rankings is largely underpinned by the contribution of overseas students, who brought US$51 billion to the economy in 2023-24.

"Despite the individual institutional successes and achievements, which are evident again in this year’s ranking, there are areas of concern for Australian higher education overall," Turner told the AFR.

The sector is facing a significant toll from underfunding, restructuring, and redundancies, particularly during a year in which international education has been in the headlines, she said.

The federal government has implemented measures to limit overseas student enrollments, aiming to reduce the number to 270,000 this year. This reduction will likely result in fewer resources for universities to allocate toward research and other activities that rely on income from international tuition.