Melbourne Law School's (MLS) top-10 status represents a climb of one place from the 2011 rankings.

“We’re delighted, it demonstrates that Melbourne Law School is performing at the highest international level and that the education our graduates get here sets them up for careers anywhere in the world,” said MLS’ dean, Professor Carolyn Evans. 

“It’s down to the quality of our staff, the quality of our students and the work we’ve done to develop an international reputation,” she added.

Three other Australian law schools enjoyed a bump up the QS Rankings this year. The University of Sydney came in 10^th spot; Australian National University was 14^th, and Monash University was just one behind in 15^th position.

The University of NSW dropped one place to 30^th, while the University of Queensland, which was in the 35^th spot in 2011, fell out of the top 50 this year. Griffith University, University of Adelaide and the Queensland University of Technology all made it into the top 100.

The annual QS World University Rankings - which use global surveys on academic reputation and employer reputation and data on citations per faculty member; faculty student ratio, and proportion of international students and international faculty members - remain dominated by US institutions, with Harvard University’s law school ranked first in the 2012 rankings.