New ranking table puts Wollongong in elite research class

Jul 21, 2005

Smaller and regional universities, including the University of Wollongong, are producing research to rival the larger "sandstone" universities, according to a ranking table produced by two researchers from UOW's School of Economics and Information Systems, and the School of Accounting and Finance.

The paper, "Ranking and Clustering Australian University Research Performance, 1998-2002" was written by Dr Abbas Valadkhani (Economics and Information Systems) and Professor Andrew Worthington (Accounting and Finance).

Drawing on a new formula for ranking Australia's 37 publicly funded universities, the study found that predicably that the Group of Eight universities outperformed all others in research in the 1998-2002 timeframe, but once size and academic staff were taken into account seven other universities (including UOW) made it into the top 15 category for research performance.

Research performance is measured according to audited numbers of PhD completions, publications and grants and analysed in both total and per academic staff terms. Factor analysis indicates that the top three research performers are the Universities of Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland in terms of total research performance and the Universities of Melbourne, Adelaide and Western Australia in per academic staff terms.

The 15 high-achieving universities listed in the paper are: Melbourne, ANU, Sydney, Queensland, UNSW, Western Australia, Monash, Adelaide, Flinders, La Trobe, Macquarie, Tasmania, Newcastle, Murdoch and Wollongong.

Dr Valadkhani and Professor Worthington stressed that the data needed further investigation and it was important not to view the finings as the sole measure of productivity.