JCU ranks with the world
James Cook University is one of two Queensland universities to make the list of the top 500 Universities in the world according to the respected Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings released today.
Only 17 of Australia’s 38 universities made the list, which is dominated by US institutions. The only other Queensland university included is the University of Queensland.
In the Asia-Pacific region, James Cook University is in the top 100 and nationally it is ranked in the 12 to 17 grouping.
The Vice Chancellor of JCU, Professor Sandra Harding, said today that the rankings confirmed the University’s place as one of the leading academic and research institutions in the country.
“I think it is wonderful that Cairns and Townsville and indeed the whole northern Queensland region can boast that it has a world-ranked university. We already knew that but it is good to have it confirmed by an independent assessment,” she said.
“It is especially pleasing for the people of our region that their own university is one of Australia’s and Queensland’s leading universities.”
Professor Harding said that the rankings were dominated in Australia by the big metropolitan universities, with only four of the top 17 coming from outside a capital city – the universities of Newcastle, New England, Wollongong and of course JCU.
“We are very proud to be not only on the list but to be sharing the status and prestige along with many much older, much bigger and more established universities,” she said. “It is a tribute to the academics and the level of research and teaching that is undertaken at James Cook University that we are recognised as a world-ranked university.”
Professor Harding said that while JCU was both a regional and middle-sized university in the Australian context, it was holding its own and in some cases surpassing much larger metropolitan universities.
“The fact that 17 of Australia’s institutions make these rankings is proof that Australian tertiary education is of the highest order and it is not just limited – as some would have us believe – to the Group of Eight sandstone universities.”
The Academic Ranking of World Universities is an independent assessment published by the Institute of Higher Education of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University and ranks universities by several indicators of academic or research performance.
Contact: JCU Media Liaison, Jim O’Brien 07 4781 4822 or 0418 892449
