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A Guide to What Is Times Higher Education Ranking and How It Can Help You

Have a look at the brand new list they’ve just published , then dive into this guide to better understand THE World University Rankings.  

What is THE University Ranking?

THE World Rankings is one of the three main ranking systems available today which provide a detailed yearly analysis of how well the top universities in the world performed. The other two are QS World University Rankings and the Shanghai Academic Rankings of World Universities (ARWU) . 

While QS base their results primarily on reputation surveys and ARWU focuses mostly on the quality of academic research and citations, Times Higher Education wants to bring a balanced approach. They use 13 indicators of performance in order to judge research-intensive universities from all points of view not just based on the quality of work they produce. This means THE offers an all-encompassing understanding of a university, and that serves students. 

>> If you’re curious to learn more about the strengths and differences of each ranking system, read this: How to Interpret University Rankings and What Are They Good For?

How did THE start ranking universities?

Times Higher Education is a magazine that has been publishing news about higher education since 1971. In 2004, they started a collaboration with Quacquarelli Symonds and began publishing THE – QS World University Rankings for the first time. However, they separated five years later, and today we have two different, independent ranking systems: Times Higher Education World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings . Checking both of them means we get to be double sure about how good universities are.

>> Read our article about the QS ranking system here: The Ins and Outs of QS World University Rankings. How It Works and How It Helps You.

THE ranks world universities by these 5 criteria

THE divides their performance indicators into five groups in order to better reflect the qualities of universities. This is what they assess:  

1. Teaching: How efficient are university classes and staff?

This score should count a lot for a future student. Teaching values 30% of the overall score of a university. This 30% is made up of five smaller categories.

Reputation survey 15% : This counts the most and, as the name says, it’s a survey sent to academics around the world in which they have to choose a maximum of 15 universities they consider the best in the world in their field of study. 

Staff-to-student ratio 4.5% : This ratio is important because the more staff a university has the better the student experience is.

Doctorate-to-bachelor’s ratio 2.25% : Having a higher number of doctorate students implies the university offers high-quality education which makes it attractive to postgraduates.

Doctorates-awarded-to-academic-staff ratio 6%

Institutional income 2.25% : This income allows the university to invest more in meeting student needs and providing state-of-the-art facilities. 

2. Research: Is research performed here considered relevant? 

If your plan is to build a career in research, meaning that you probably want to do a PhD at this university, well, this is a metric to consider. Research, which amounts to another 30% of the overall score, is assessed in great part ( 18% ) through the academic reputation survey as well, meaning that this indicator reflects how well-regarded the research published by a university is among the other academics. 

In addition, this category takes research income into consideration as well ( 6% ) because THE believe the budget a university has for its research will influence its quality and research productivity ( 6% ) or how much work academics at that university actually publish in peer-reviewed journals.

3. Citations: How often are authors from here cited in books or articles?

Citations are the third indicator and equally important as the previous one for future researchers. Citations, just like Teaching and Research, counts for another 30% of the final score and it measures how much influence the research produced by a university has on the outside world. They measure it by counting the number of times the university’s published works are cited by other scholars. 

4. International outlook: Is the university relevant to the international community? 

If you are an international student looking for a university abroad, you should check the International outlook metric in particular. Although this metric  weighs a bit less than the other three indicators, 7.5% of the final score this indicator is very important because a good, high-performing university naturally attracts international students and staff. That’s why a high score in the three categories of this indicator, the proportion of international students , the proportion of international staff , and international collaboration , is relevant for all students but especially  those coming from abroad who will benefit from studying at a university adapted to foreign students. 

5. Industry income: Do businesses give credit to the university? 

The final indicator, although it represents only 2.5% of the score, is perhaps the most relevant in today’s modern and dynamic world. It shows the impact of the university and the research it produces beyond academic knowledge. 

Industry income measure how much funding an institution received from companies in different industries in exchange for their research. In other words, how relevant is that research to the world outside academia, and how good is the university at attracting this kind of attention from companies. 

For all its indicators, Times Higher Education takes differentiating factors into consideration and applies them to their results. Such factors are the profile of a university (science vs humanities focus for examples), location, how old or new it is, and so on. 

>> If you want to read more about this, go to THE Methodology and read their detailed breakdown of all the performance indicators. 

What else do they offer?

Apart from the annual World University Rankings, THE also has other lists of ranked universities which can shed some light if you’re trying to decide what’s the best university for you.. You should pick from these lists the ones that deal with the aspects you care about most. Do you want to go to a sustainable university? Do you care about how reputable the university is? Do want the best in your subject area? These are a few questions these other rankings can answer. 

Impact rankings: tell you how sustainable the university is

These rankings are one of a kind and aim at judging universities based on their commitment to sustainability as well as their results in this area. They have their own Methodology and the top universities in this list are quite different from the ones in the World Academic Rankings. To analyse performance, the Impact rankings are built around the Sustainability Development Goals (SDG) set by the United Nations. 

Why does it matter to you? Because you’ll be part of an institution with an active role in building a greener, better world. Definitely check this out if you want to study in a sustainability-related subject area.

They’ve been published for four consecutive years already and the top 5 universities in the latest education are: 

Western Sydney University , Australia

Arizona State University , US

Western University , Canada

King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia

Universiti Sains Malaysia , Malaysia

Teaching Rankings: focus on student experience over academic achievement

This again is a unique category that THE created in order to assess universities from the point of view of students by trying to answer some of their most common questions such as what are their chances of graduating, what’s the atmosphere on campus, how easy will it be to get a job after they graduate. In other words, these rankings are about the quality of teaching and the everyday experience at the university. 

There are two subcategories here:

• US College rankings
• Japan universities rankings

World University Rankings by Subject: same global rankings, specifically tailored for each study area

Similar to the Subject Rankings published by QS, THE Subject Rankings follow the same 13 performance indicators as the World Rankings, however, they change the percentage of each one so as to better represent the different subjects.

Do they even matter? Definitely. You will see that a university can score very high in a certain subject but much lower overall. Or the other way around. So, ask yourself what matters most to you: their academic strength in your subject or their general performance.

THE Subject Rankings are divided into 11 different subjects:

• Arts & Humanities
• Business & Economics
• Social sciences
• Computer science
• Engineering
• Clinical & Health
• Life sciences
• Physical sciences

Regional Rankings: the rankings you need if you want to study in a particular part of the world

Because some regions have their own particularities which greatly influence higher education, THE has a few separate rankings, each focused on a single region and using its own adapted methodology. These are:

• Latin America University Rankings
• Asia University Rankings
• Arab University Rankings
• Emerging Economies University Rankings

Other Global Rankings if you want to be extra thorough 

• World Reputation Rankings 

This list is put together following a worldwide survey sent to experienced academics in which they must name the 15 universities they consider best in the world. The top 10 is dominated by US and UK universities, with a single university from China in 10th place. 

So, it stands to reason that if making an impression with your diploma is what you care about most, you should go for a degree in the US or UK. 

• Young University Rankings

This list uses the same methodology as the World Rankings, but only assesses universities that are 50 years old or younger. 

The top 5 young universities in the world are:

• Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris, France
• Nanyang Technological University , Singapore
• The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , Hong Kong
• Erasmus University Rotterdam , Netherlands
• Hong Kong Polytechnic University , Hong Kong

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About western, world university rankings, western sydney university rankings.

As a world-class university, Western is globally recognised for our research strengths and innovations in teaching. That's why international students from over 70 countries choose to study at Western Sydney University every year.

• Overall Global Rankings
• Global Subject Rankings
• Excellence in Teaching and Research Rankings

Overall Rankings

Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024 1

• Top 2% in the world
• Top 350 universities globally
• 1 st in the world overall
• 1 st  in the world for SDG 5 Gender Equality
• 3 rd in the world for SDG 15 Life on Land 
• 4 th in the world for SDG 13 Climate Action, SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production, and SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals 
• 8 th in the world for SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities 
• 9 th in the world for SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation 

Times Higher Education Young University Rankings 2024 1

• Number 10 in Australia among universities under 50 years old
• Number 48 in the world among universities under 50 years old

QS World University Rankings 2025 2

• Ranked 384 th in the world

Top 400 in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2023 3 US News Best Global Universities 2024 4

• Top 20 in Australia
• Top 300 globally

1  Times Higher Education Rankings 2  QS Top University Rankings 3  Shanghai Rankings 4  US News Best Global University Rankings

Subject Rankings

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2023 1

• Number 2 in Australia for Ecology
• Agricultural Sciences
• Atmospheric Science
• Automation & Control
• Civil Engineering
• Clinical Medicine
• Top 50 in the World: Nursing; Ecology
• Top 75 in the World: Automation & Control
• Top 100 in the World: Civil Engineering; Geography
• Top 200 in the World: Agricultural Sciences; Atmospheric Science; Education
• Top 300 in the World: Clinical Medicine; Communication; Mechanical Engineering; and Psychology

QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024 2

• Top 50: Nursing
• Top 100: Development Studies
• Top 150:  Sports-Related Subjects
• Top 200: Architecture and Built Environment; Linguistics; Sociology; Agriculture and Forestry; Geography
• Top 250: Communication and Media Studies; Psychology; Engineering - Civil and Structural

Times Higher Education World Subject Rankings 2024 3

• Top 175: Education
• Top 250:  Arts and Humanities; Clinical, Pre-Clinical and Health; Life Sciences; and Social Sciences
• Top 300: Law; Psychology

1  ARWU (Shanghai) Rankings 2  QS Top University Rankings 3  Times Higher Education Rankings

Excellence in Teaching and Research

QS World University Rankings – Star Audit 2022 1

Overall Score: 5 Stars

5 star ranking in these categories:

• Employability
• Internationalisation
• Specialist Criteria: Nursing
• Environmental Impact

1  QS Top University Rankings

2018 Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) National Report

• 85% of the University's research has been ranked at 'world standard or above'

For more information about our achievements in research, visit Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA)  or see our  Research Concentrations .

Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers List

Recognises researchers from around the world who demonstrate significant influence in their chosen field or fields. This is based on the publication of multiple, highly-cited papers during the last decade. Western Sydney University academics have been named amongst the most-highly cited researchers in the world in the latest Clarivate Highly Cited (HiCis) Researchers list for 2023 1 .

The University’s highly-cited researchers for 2023 are:

Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment

• Distinguished Professor Belinda Medlyn (Plant and Animal Science) 
• Professor Brajesh Singh (Environment and Ecology)
• Associate Professor Brendan Choat (Plant and Animal Science)
• Professor Ian Wright (Plant and Animal Science)
• Dr Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo (affiliate)
• Professor Peter Reich (affiliate)  

School of Computer, Data and Mathematical Sciences

• Distinguished Professor Wei-Xing Zheng (Engineering)

School of Science 

• Professor Zhong-Hau Chen (Plant and Animal Science) 

School of Psychology  

• Professor Alex Morin (affiliate) 

Institute for Culture and Society

• Professor Jamie Peck (affiliate)
• Dr Joe Firth (affiliate)

1  Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers List

Find out why Western is perfect for you.

* THE World University Rankings 2019-2022 ^ QS Star Ratings 2023 * THE Impact Rankings 2022-2024

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Griffith University

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Ratings and rankings

Griffith consistently places in the top 2% of universities worldwide according to a series of prestigious ranking systems

By choosing to study at Griffith, students benefit from degrees informed by our world-class research, expert knowledge and industry connections. Griffith is also a university that lives its values—and, despite our relative youth, we’re being recognised worldwide for our commitment to sustainable development.

We rate highly as a young university, ranking 46th in the 2023 Times Higher Education Young University Rankings.

Ranked against the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs ), Griffith placed in the top 100 universities worldwide in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings for 2021-2023.

World rankings

In five of the largest and most credible world university rankings, Griffith is rated in the top 300:

Times Higher Education World University Rankings: 251-300

Qs world university rankings: 255, academic ranking of world universities: 201-300, cwts leiden ranking: 234, us news best global universities: 239, sustainable development goals.

Griffith University is aligned with the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs ) and is committed to advancing sustainable development through comprehensive initiatives that promote economic prosperity, social inclusion, environmental sustainability and good governance for all.

Young and ambitious

Griffith ranks highly as a young university, ranking 35th in the 2024 Times Higher Education Young University Rankings, improving by 11 places from 46th in 2023. Being a young university means we have the freedom to respect tradition without being restricted by it, which gives us the flexibility to adapt to the ever-changing needs of students, industry and the community. We've introduced Australia's first degrees in a wide range of important areas, from Asian studies and environmental science to dental technology and forensic science. We were also quick to adopt online education, and have offered online study options for almost 20 years.

Making an impact

Since its founding almost 50 years ago, Griffith University has been a leader in environmentally sustainable and responsible practice. That proud history is now being recognised on the world stage through the University's inclusion in the 2021-2023 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings.

The rankings assess universities against the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs ). In 2023, Griffith leapt 20 places for an overall ranking of 72nd, out of 1,600 participating universities.

In 2023 Griffith ranks:

• Top 20 — SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (19th in the world out of 910 institutions)
• Top 50 — SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being (27th in the world out of 1,219 institutions)
• Top 100 — SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals (54th in the world out of 1,625 institutions)
• Top 100 — SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth (61st in the world out of 960 institutions)

These results demonstrate our commitment to creating a brighter future for all through meaningful, impactful and measurable action, and we are dedicated to achieving even better results in subsequent years.

Find out more about Griffith's commitment to the UN SDGs on our Sustainability webpage .

Our researchers are at the forefront of international discovery

Research at Griffith

Australia's top teachers

Griffith has received more Australian Awards for University Teaching than any other university, since 2012. We have won:

3 Australian University Teacher of the Year awards

8 teaching excellence awards, 6 awards for programs that enhance learning, 42 citations for outstanding contributions to student learning, five stars for educational experience.

Griffith holds a five star rating for overall educational experience from the Good Universities Guide, an independent guide to Australian higher education. We also have five star rankings for our highly qualified staff, skills development, and teaching quality.

A five-star experience

Overall experience, good universities guide, skills development, staff qualifications, most satisfied students - online universities, canstar blue, subject rankings.

Griffith ranked in the top 300 in the ShanghaiRanking Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2023 for a range of subjects.

• Nursing and Midwifery (third globally, tied first in Australia)
• Hospitality and Tourism Management (fourth globally, first in Australia)
• Business Administration (21 st globally)
• Dentistry and Oral Sciences
• Energy Science and Engineering
• Computer Science and Engineering
• Materials Science & Engineering
• Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
• Public Administration
• Water Resources
• Chemical Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Oceanography
• Political Sciences
• Biomedical Engineering
• Biotechnology
• Environmental Science and Engineering

Griffith MBA

Our MBA is placed among leading national and global MBA ’s with a focus on sustainability and values-driven leadership. Recent achievements include 1st overall globally for 2023-2024, 2022-2023, 2021-2022 and 2020 in the Corporate Knights Better World MBA Ranking, and Australia's #1 online MBA with a Tier One ranking in the 2023 CEO Magazine Global MBA Ranking.

Find out more about our MBA credentials.

MBA credentials

Research excellence

The 2018 Excellence in Research for Australia results highlight Griffith’s performance at world standard or above across more than 50 different disciplines. With over 1,700 experts conducting research across all major academic disciplines, Griffith is focused on understanding the world we live in and improving people’s lives.

Griffith was rated ‘well above world-standard’ for the following 24 fields of research:

• Chemical sciences
• Condensed matter physics
• Criminology
• Ecological applications
• Environmental sciences
• Environmental science and management
• Evolutionary biology
• Inorganic chemistry
• Macromolecular and materials chemistry
• Materials engineering
• Mechanical engineering
• Medical microbiology
• Nanotechnology
• Oncology and carcinogenesis
• Optical physics
• Physical chemistry (incl. structural)
• Physical sciences
• Political science
• Quantum physics

Teaching and learning

Our innovative teaching methods and learning experiences set us apart

Find out more

Times Higher Education World University Rankings (Q1318318)

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Impact Rankings 2020

The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings are the only global performance tables that assess universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We use carefully calibrated indicators to provide comprehensive and balanced comparisons across three broad areas: research, outreach and stewardship.

This second edition includes 768 universities from 85 countries.

View the Impact Rankings 2020 methodology

The list is once again led by New Zealand’s University of Auckland, while three Australian universities complete the rest of the top four: University of Sydney, Western Sydney University and La Trobe University.

Japan is the most-represented nation in the table with 63 institutions, followed by Russia with 47 and Turkey with 37.

Read our analysis of the Impact Rankings 2020 results

View our interactive map to see performance by institution, region and national income level

Download a free copy of the  Impact Rankings 2020 digital supplement

To unlock the data behind  THE ’s rankings, and access a range of analytical and benchmarking tools,  click here .

Explore Impact Rankings for individual SDGs

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Rankings table information *

Read more about the Impact Rankings 2020

Student insights.

• Top universities in the world for global impact
• Top universities for climate action
• Top universities for tackling gender equality

Academic Insights

• THE Impact Rankings 2020: results announced
• Universities must prove their civic value during the Covid-19 crisis
• Why should universities pay attention to the SDGs?
• The SDGs have become a rallying point for students and staff
• Covid-19 is an opportunity to reimagine international partnerships

Methodology:

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