The Australian National University (ANU) has maintained its ranking of fourth in Australia and dropped two places to 32nd in the latest QS World University Rankings 2026 amid stronger global competition.
Rankings are based on the overall score that an institution receives across 10 key indicators and ANU recorded its highest overall score in six years, increasing five points to 87.4. This was driven by improvements across eight of the 10 indicators used to assess the University.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) Professor Lachlan Blackhall said it was pleasing to see improvements across the majority of indicators.
"ANU is moving in the right direction in many areas, including academic and employer reputation, citations per faculty and our international benchmarks," Professor Blackhall said.
According to QS, universities in Asia, particularly India, China, Malaysia and Thailand have demonstrated significant improvement in their QS rankings this year.
Specifically, 44 per cent of universities in China improved their ranking, slightly higher than in the United States (41 per cent) and substantially higher than in the Australia (19 per cent), and the United Kingdom (27 per cent). More than 60 per cent of universities in Australia and New Zealand recorded a fall in their ranking this year.
"University rankings are increasingly competitive around the world and to be 32nd among 1,501 institutes across 106 countries, is a strong result. We will continue working hard to support our distinctive teaching and research activities at ANU and to ensure that our recognised impact is reflected through the QS and other university rankings."
The complete results can be found on the QS World University Rankings 2026 website.
