Curtin University has significantly improved its rankings in the highly-regarded Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
Curtin is now placed 303 within the 301-400 band, up from the 401-500 band in 2013. The University was one of only 19 Australian universities ranked in 2014 and is placed equal 10th nationally.
Curtin University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Terry said she was delighted Curtin had significantly improved its position in the ARWU.
“The ARWU is widely recognised as the most relevant research-oriented university ranking system worldwide and this is the sixth consecutive year Curtin has featured,” Professor Deborah Terry said.
“Curtin’s significant improvement in the 2014 rankings is a reflection of the focus the University has put, over a period of time, on increasing its research performance.
“One of the factors for this improvement is that Thomson Reuters recently revised the published list of Highly Cited researchers. This list has not been revised since 2008 and institutions that had recently achieved in this area had not been recognised in the ARWU.
“With the revision of the Highly Cited list in 2014, Curtin now has three researchers included which substantially improves Curtin’s position in the rankings, which is really gratifying,” Professor Terry said.
The University also increased its 2013 score in three other indicators – papers published in the leading journals Nature and Science, papers indexed in Science Citation Index-Expanded and Social Science Citation Index, and per capita academic performance of an institution.
Curtin’s 2013-2017 Strategic Plan outlines the intention to attract and retain iconic scholars to undertake world-leading research in areas of global significance.
The ARWU listing is released annually by Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Centre for World-Class Universities.
Note: The media release was updated with the 303 ranking on 29 August 2014.
