Analysing the performance of New Zealand universities in the 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities

Key Results

This occasional paper examined the results of the 2010 Shanghai Jiao Tong University Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). The results showed that:

• The published 2010 ARWU results show that the overall ranking of The University of Auckland and the University of Otago was between 201 to 300 in the world top 500, while Massey University, the University of Canterbury and Victoria University of Wellington were ranked between 401 and 500.
• Analysis by the Ministry of Education of the underlying data used to generate the ARWU top 500 rankings shows that the top-ranked New Zealand university was The University of Auckland (210), followed by the University of Otago (295), Massey University (460), University of Canterbury (460) and Victoria University of Wellington (471).
• Focusing on the ‘per capita’ component measure in the ARWU, which attempts to take account of performance on a per academic staff member basis, analysis by the Ministry of Education shows that New Zealand universities are generally ranked higher among the top 500 universities, compared with the overall rankings.
• Analysis by the Ministry of Education of the underlying ARWU data shows that four of the five New Zealand universities dropped places in the 2010 top 500 overall rankings compared with the previous year, while the average ranking for the Australian Group of Eight universities improved. Using the ARWU ‘per capita’ component measure, which attempts to take into account of the performance of universities on a per academic staff member basis, the ranking of three out of the five New Zealand universities improved in the 2010 rankings.
• In terms of a country’s share of universities in the ARWU top 500, once share of the world economy is taken into account, New Zealand ranked first in the world. When taking into account our share of the world’s population, New Zealand ranked eighth in the world.