Otago gains ground in uni rankings

The University of Otago has gained ground in the latest international university ranking report, for the first time since it was included in the rankings four years ago.

In The Times Higher Education report released today, Otago retained its second place spot among New Zealand institutions, after Auckland University, which climbed three spots to 172nd place overall. This year, Otago moved up from the 251-275 category to the 201-250 category.

However, The Times warned rankings this year should not be directly compared with previous years, because of ''improvements'' to the ''carefully calibrated weightings'' that determine scores.

Nonetheless, Otago academic deputy vice chancellor Prof Vernon Squire said via email the evidence suggested ''we have improved independent of the methodological changes, as well as benefiting from them''.

The good news for Otago comes just weeks after another international ranking report - the QS World University Rankings - showed Otago dropping 14 spots.

At the time, university vice chancellor Prof Harlene Hayne attributed the drop to a change in QS's methodology.

In a press release, Universities New Zealand executive director Chris Whelan said the report reflected well on New Zealand's universities.

However, the good result came despite a ''continued slow decline'' of New Zealand universities as a result of inadequate government funding, he said.

''We are concerned to see a slow decline for most of our universities over the past three years,'' he said.

''The fact is this decline won't be arrested without further investment by Government.''

New Zealand universities' ability to get ''international rankings that demonstrate our quality to academics and students ... depends significantly on us having a high quality university system''.

Prof Squire agreed funding constraints would ''inevitably have some degree of impact on our performance in international rankings''.

''But at the end of the day, for the size of the country, we actually do very well in the rankings.''

Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce took issue with the premise that New Zealand universities were underfunded.

''The New Zealand university sector isn't underfunded relative to the size of our economy,'' he said.

''In [the 2015 budget], the Government announced an additional $113million for tertiary education over the next four years, the bulk of which went to the university sector.

''We do intend to keep investing more in our universities, as funding allows.''

-carla.green@odt.co.nz


University rankings
Rankings in 2015-16

• 172 = University of Auckland
• 201-250 University of Otago
• 351-400 Victoria University of Wellington
• 401-500 University of Canterbury
• 401-500 University of Waikato
• 501-600 Massey University
• 601-800 Auckland University of Technology

Source: Times Higher Education


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