Highly cited academics elevate UOW in internationally recognised rankings
The University of Wollongong (UOW) has achieved its third consecutive jump in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), rising 26 places to 220 in the 2019 rankings.
It is UOW's highest ever ranking and builds on the success of 2018, when UOW rose five places to be ranked 246th in the world.
The latest rankings, released on Thursday night, make UOW the 10th highest ranked university in Australia, and third in the state.
The prestigious ARWU listing is a research-based ranking system, drawn from independently sourced data which is used to rank the world's top 1000 research universities annually.
Universities are ranked by several indicators of academic or research performance, including alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, highly cited researchers, papers published in Nature and Science, papers indexed in major citation indices, and the per capita academic performance of an institution.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Wellings CBE said the results reflected the calibre of research talent at the University, and the focus on undertaking research with real-world impacts.
"This achievement, improving our standing in a globally recognised rankings system for the third year in a row, is a testament to the motivation and strength of our researchers," Professor Wellings said.
"The outstanding result demonstrates our ability to foster excellence and collaborate with industry and our academic peers.
"In particular, the rankings highlight the success of our world-leading scientific research. Our research is strongly aligned with our teaching program, ultimately benefiting our students, and the industries and communities they will go on to impact years into the future."
The rankings, published since 2003 by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, showed strong global performances in measures for highly cited fellows.
UOW also improved its per capita academic performance and increased the number of Nature and Science publications indexed in major citation indices.
The University's ranking boost continues a trend of strong results in global rankings. In the Times Higher Education Young University Rankings, UOW climbed to 29th place in June, in line with QS World University Rankings where UOW climbed six places to 212th in the world in June, and outstanding QS World Rankings by Subject results in February.
Meanwhile, in ShanghaiRanking's 2019 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects released in June, UOW was ranked in the top 100 universities in the world across 10 disciplines including civil engineering, atmospheric science, energy science and engineering, geography, hospitality and tourism, material science, metallurgical engineering, mining engineering, nanoscience and technology and transportation science and technology.
UOW excelled in the energy science and engineering discipline, ranking in the top 50 worldwide.
