South Australia’s giant new University has cracked the QS global top 100, before it actually opens.
The rankings agency lists Adelaide U at 82nd in the world, a vindication for the vision of SA premier Peter Malinauskas and an achievement by the two leaders who have conjured it into life, Peter Høj, VC of the soon to disappear Uni of Adelaide and David Lloyd, VC of the about to exit Uni SA.
Their creation is the lowest ranked of the Group of Eight in Wednesday’s QS table, 60 spots behind usual Australian leader (Uni Melbourne) at 19th but Adelaide U being with its new peers at all will surprise critics of the merger, who assumed Uni SA (340 in the world on QS last year) would drag its partner down.
It didn’t – the new university has exactly the same score as UoA last time. In part, it is because the pair have complementary strengths, Uni Adelaide rates for research, Uni SA is good on staff-student ratings and has a few high-citation researchers. But what appears to have buoyed the university’s ranking overall is an enormous expectation in the employer and academic surveys of what the new U can do. The survey ranking is based on a diminishing weighted result of the previous five, adjusted for employers’ familiarity with local conditions and research fields for academics. The survey for the new QS score was taken early this year and included Adelaide U for the first time.
If this is what happened, it is an enormous endorsement of the merger process to date and the leadership of the two outgoing VCs Peter Høj (UoA) and David Lloyd (Uni SA). Certainly there is criticism that the new curriculum will be a work in progress for a while, but overall they have convinced both their communities that Adelaide U will work and be good for them, for students – and the State.
Premier Malinauskas started the push for a big Adelaide U in Opposition, “the harsh truth is that each of our universities are too small and too undercapitalised to make it into the list of top international universities,” he said in 2020. And a major reason for an SA entrant way up in the rankings was to appeal to international students. This isn’t talked up much, since concerns in the community about international student numbers emerged before last year’s election.
By 2023, Mr Malinauskas was shouting it from the top of Colonel Light’s statue. “The opening of the new Adelaide University … offers a valuable chance to attract even more students, providing a significant boost to our economy, community, and workforce,” he said as he left on a trade trip to India, (via Twitter, March 23). “Global university rankings matter, which is why we made it a key metric in our university merger election policy.”
A higher ranking helps attract students, academics and research opportunities.
The new QS score can’t hurt – with the Times Higher ranking it is part of Australian university marketing pitches in Asia. Optimists are already suggesting Adelaide U is a sure thing to rate well on the QS ranking of universities under 50, due in the next few weeks.
As to how it will go on the next Times Higher – Nicholas Fisk and Daniel Owens (UNSW) crunched the available data in 2023 and predicted Adelaide U would rate 82nd in the world. It was, they admitted, a “guestimation,” but they predicted this week’s QS ranking, estimating Adelaide U would start at 98th in the world – close enough to its even-better first score.
All the usual caveats apply to these rankings but as a morale booster and a sales message they are hard to beat. Whatever happens when Adelaide U opens there is no faulting Høj and Lloyd for having given it a go.
For a full analysis of the QS results, see the article by our resident rankings expert Angel Calderon.
