Our world university rankings


University of Sydney

Our rankings reflect our achievements as a world leader in research and education for more than 160 years.

As the name suggests, university rankings rank universities. However, each ranking organisation measures institutions in different ways, using different criteria, and different weightings of similar criteria.

We’ve outlined our global university rankings below with an outline on the key indicators for each.

Find out more about how rankings work and when they matter.

QS World University Rankings

  • #5 in Australia
  • #50 in the world

Key indicators for the QS rankings include academic reputation (40%), citations per faculty (20%), student-to-faculty ratio (20%), employer reputation (10%), international faculty ratio (5%) and international student ratio (5%).

Learn more about our latest QS rankings.

QS Graduate Employability Rankings

  • #1 in Australia
  • #4 in the world

The QS Employability Rankings move past employment rates to give a more in-depth indication of how universities are perceived in the global graduate jobs market, how well-connected to the professional world universities are, and the quality of employment outcomes achieved by graduates.

QS Subject Rankings

QS also highlights the world’s top universities in a range of popular subject areas. These rankings are based on academic reputation and research impact.

  • Sports-related subjects #1 in the world (this new category includes physical therapy, sports therapy and rehabilitation).
  • Anatomy and physiology #1 in Australia and #10 in the world (new category)
  • Veterinary sciences #1 in Australia and #11 in the world
  • Medicine #1 in Australia and #15 in the world
  • Architecture/built environment #1 in Australia and #15 in the world
  • English language and literature #1 in Australia and #18 in the world
  • Nursing #2 in Australia and #9 in the world
  • Education #2 in Australia and #11 in the world
  • Law #2 in Australia and #13 in the world
  • Geography #2 in Australia and #17 in the world
  • Pharmacy and pharmacology #2 in Australia and #20 in the world.

Times Higher Education World University Rankings

  • #3 in Australia
  • #61 in the world

Key indicators for the Times Higher Education rankings include teaching (30%), research (30%), research citations (30%), international outlook and industry income (2.5%)

Learn more about our latest Times Higher Education rankings.

Times Higher Education Global Employability Rankings

  • #1 in NSW, #3 in Australia
  • #49 in the world

Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings

  • #3 in Australia
  • #61-70 in the world

Times Higher Education World's Most International Universities

  • #5 in Australia
  • #23 in the world

Times Higher Education Best Universities in the Asia-Pacific region

  • #4 in Australia
  • #11 in Asia-Pacific

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)

  • #4 in Australia
  • #83 in the world

Key indicators include the number of alumni winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (10%), number of staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (20%), number of highly cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories (20%), number of articles published in Nature and Science (20%), number of articles indexed in Science Citation Index - Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index (20%) and per capita academic performance of an institution (10%).

Learn more about our latest ARWU ranking.

US News & World Report Best Global Universities Rankings

  • #2 in Australia
  • #45 in the world

US News uses 12 indicators ranging from research reputation and PhD statistics to highly cited papers statistics and international collaboration. It also includes other bibliometric statistics on publications, citations, books and conferences.

Learn more about our US News & World Report rankings.

CWTS Leiden Rankings

  • #1 in Australia
  • #29 in the world

The Leiden Rankings are based on bibliographic data from the Web of Science scientific citation index, which analyses the scientific performance of more than 900 major universities from 54 countries.

The Rankings focus on the scientific impact of universities, as well as their involvement in scientific collaboration.

Learn more about our CWTS Leiden rankings.