Little money – universities slip in ranking

University of Auckland’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon, blames the low level of investment in the NZ university sector for universities’ slippage in world rankings.

McCutcheon told The Press he is not surprised that NZ universities are continuing to fall behind their rival overseas institutions.

Latest QS World University rankings showed that Auckland, Victoria and Canterbury universities all climbed down the ladder.

From being top 50 in 2007, Auckland University now ranks 82 – a fall from rank 68 last year.

Canterbury University dropped from 189 to 212, while Victoria slipped from 225 to 237.

The University of Otago was the only NZ university to improve its ranking, gaining five places to be ranked 130.

McCutcheon said the results confirmed that “trends among New Zealand universities are of real concern”.

“We have predicted for some time that the New Zealand universities would be overtaken by better-funded systems elsewhere in the world and now we see that happening.”

The ranking looks at over 2000 universities, evaluates around 700 and ranks the top 400.

The final rank is a combination of a university’s academic and employer reputation, as well as academic citations.

Staff to student ratio, and the proportion of international students and international staff are also part of the ranking process.