UNSW has performed strongly year on year, rising from 134th in 2016. In 2020, UNSW leapt an unprecedented 20 places to 74th, after moving into the top 100 for the first time the previous year.

Vice-chancellor and president Professor Attila Brungs congratulated the UNSW community on the strong trajectory.

“Since the inception of our 2025 Strategy, UNSW has continued to make significant strides towards our goal of accelerating the quality and impact of its research in areas critical to Australia’s success,” he said.

“I’m delighted to see our focus on impact reflected in the university’s improved position in these prestigious rankings. This consistent performance is a testament to the hard work of our university community.”

UNSW deputy vice-chancellor, research and enterprise, Professor Nicholas Fisk added that the result reflects the international strength and trajectory of UNSW’s research power.

“Our researchers have once again done us proud,” he said.

“UNSW’s ranking is especially significant when one considers that UNSW like most younger universities scores zero in the 30 per cent of AWRU allocated for Nobel prizes.” 

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Universities are ranked by several academic or research performance indicators in the ARWU rankings, including the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, the number of highly cited researchers, papers published in journals Nature and Science, papers indexed in major citation indices, and the per capita academic performance of an institution.

Universities from the United States continue to dominate the league table, with Harvard University ranking first for the 20th year. Australia now has 24 universities listed in ARWU’s top 500 and seven in the top 100.