Rankings

Our world university rankings

We've achieved an enviable reputation for research and teaching excellence and are ranked among the world's top universities. We consistently rank in the top 50 and 100 rankings in the most prestigious and recognised rankings globally.

Combined rankings graph

Times Higher Education (THE)

THE rankings graph

The Times Higher Education World University Ranking was first published in 2004 and aims to provide a list of the world’s best universities, with an emphasis on the research mission. It assesses research-intensive universities across all of the core missions of teaching (the learning environment), research environment (productivity, income and reputation), research quality (research excellence, strength and influence), industry income (knowledge transfer) and international outlook (staff, students and research).

The THE methodology includes a reputational component which is derived from a survey administered by THE annually. Institutions submit core data on student, staff and income that underpin the assessment, and bibliometric content is sourced from Scopus (Elsevier).

The 2025 ranking includes 2,092 institutions from 115 countries and regions.

Further information can be found at Times Higher Education.

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS)

Monash University’s recent performance under the QS ranking has improved significantly, now ranking firmly within the global top 50 at 37th in 2024.

QS world rankings graph

The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranking was first published in 2004 and aims to enable motivated people anywhere in the world to fulfil their potential through educational achievement, international mobility, and career development. Institutions are assessed across six categories (or indicators) to effectively capture university performance. It includes a significant proportion based on reputation, with over 45% of the methodology being based on academic and employer perception of institutions. The citation-related content is provided by Scopus (Elsevier) and institutions submit data on staff and student numbers. The 2024 ranking included over 1,500 universities across 105 higher education systems.

Further information can be found at QS.

ShanghaiRanking Academic Rankings of World Universities (ARWU)

Monash University’s ranking within the prestigious ShanghaiRanking Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) has been relatively consistent over the past decade. Monash is currently ranked 82th in the world.

ARWU rankings graph

The ARWU was the first global ranking established in 2003 by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, to assess and rank universities. It is based on six criteria that are independently sourced and do not require any data submissions from universities themselves. The ARWU uses the Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) to inform bibliometric related content. The ARWU methodology includes 30% of the calculation on students or staff who have won Nobel Prizes or Field Medals.

More than 2,500 universities are ranked by ARWU every year and the best 1,000 are published.

Further information can be found at ShanghaiRanking.

US News World Report

Monash achieved another best ever result in the US News ranking for 2024-2025, ranking equal 35th globally.

US News rankings graph

The US News methodology has a high proportion of the calculation related to research performance metrics, with 75% of the methodology based on bibliometric performance sourced from the Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics). The remaining 25% is derived through a reputational survey administered annually by US News from regional and global reputation.

Further information can be found at USNWR.

Rankings FAQs

Global university rankings were developed in the early 2000s with a view to provide a robust, independent assessment of the quality of tertiary education providers globally. The rankings provide an indication and comparable benchmark of an institution's performance across a range of factors – predominately teaching and research, but others also include an element of internationalisation and industry engagement.
There are many international rankings, all with their own methodology and data sourcing models. The key world university rankings the University follows include those from Times Higher Education, ShanghaiRanking, Quacquarelli Symonds and US News World Report.
The focus of the introduction of the initial international ranking (ShanghaiRanking's Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in 2003) was to provide an indication of the performance of Chinese institutions relative to the world’s best, to influence government policy. Since this release, international rankings have been used to influence a large range of stakeholders for universities including prospective students and parents, industry partners, prospective staff and HDRs and national governments. In the transitory international competitive market that is tertiary education in the 21st century, any quick indication of an institution’s performance relative to their competitors may influence perception.
While no one ranking is considered to be the highest in terms of prominence, each has a closer association to specific geographical markets. This association is predominantly influenced by the location of the related agency, except for the QS who have specifically targeted Asian markets and gained significant traction over the past decade. As a result the THE is primarily associated with the UK and European markets, the USNWR with the US market and the ARWU and QS the Asian markets.
The primary differentiation is in the methodology used for calculating the ranking and on the data sources used in the analysis. Some use independent sources whilst others source a large amount of data directly from institutions. This has caused a range of questions relating to the validity of some rankings as there is potential to ‘game’ or influence the rankings based on the data an institution provides.
There are, of course, additional factors that need to be taken into consideration when considering some of the rankings in relation to specific disciplines or subject areas. Due to the nature of the criteria of some of the rankings, they are innately aligned to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) areas, so the applicability for HASS (Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences) subjects may be less relevant.
ShanghaiRanking's ARWU is an independent ranking that sources information directly from external information sources. The primary provider of bibliometric information for the ARWU is Clarivate Analytics who manage the Web of Science database, which is then supplemented by information sourced directly from major prize or medal awardees e.g. Nobel or Field Medals. This information is also used by ShanghaiRanking for their Global Rankings of Academic Subjects.
The Times Higher Education (THE) methodology has a few more components to supplement the bibliometric data, with reputational opinions of discipline leaders sought and a requirement for institutions to submit a small amount of accompanying contextual information. The primary provider for the THE ranking bibliometric data is Elsevier who manage the Scopus database. The reputation component is completed through an annual audited survey and institutions submit their additional information annually. THE also reuse the information collated to produce a subject level analysis of institutional performance.
The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) methodology also uses an element of reputational standing with both the academic and employer perception of an institution contributing to the ranking. The reputational scores have a higher weighting and are accompanied by bibliometric information on citations sourced from Scopus and information on student-staff ratio. The QS reuse this information to produce a number of indicative rankings including by subject and graduate employability.

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