World Ranking Guide

The University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia (UniSA) have agreed to explore the merits of a merger to create a new, leading Australian university. Both University Councils have endorsed a 6-month period of collaboration to discuss a potential merger.

The University of Adelaide Profile:
Founded: 1874
Students: 27,000
Staff: 3800
Total revenue: $947 million
Campuses: three (North Terrace, Waite, Roseworthy)
Rankings: Adelaide was ranked 134 in the 2017-18 Times Higher Education world university rankings, 109 in the 2018 QS World University Rankings, and 139 in the 2017 ARWU (Shanghai Jiao Tong).

University of South Australia Profile:
Founded: 1991
Students: 37,000
Staff: 3000
Total revenue: $610 million
Campuses: six (City East, City West, Magill, Mawson Lakes, Whyalla, Mount Gambier)
Rankings: UniSA was ranked highly among the world’s top universities under 50 years old in both the THE and QS rankings (sitting at 26 in both rankings).

The merger may place this new university among the world's top 100 in international quality rankings.

According to the QS World University Rankings 2019, Massachusetts Institute of Technology is ranked No. 1 in the world, followed by Stanford University in 2nd place and Harvard University in 3rd place. The QS rankings were based on academic reputation, employer reputation, citations per faculty, student-to-faculty ratio, proportion of international faculty, and proportion of international students. MIT earned a perfect overall score of 100.

The University of Edinburgh is ranked 18th worldwide. This puts Edinburgh 5th in the UK, and once again in the highest position of any Scottish university.

The University of Melbourne is ranked 39th in the QS World University Rankings 2019, jumping from 41st place last year. This places it in the top 40 globally across all three of the major ranking bodies – QS, the Academic Rankings of World Universities (ARWU), and the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Ranking.

UNSW Sydney maintain its spot among the world’s top 50 universities in the 2019 QS World University Rankings. The rankings placed UNSW 45th in the world, just behind Australian National University, the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney.

The University of Warwick has been named as one of the UK’s top 10, and one of the world’s top 60, universities by the 2019 QS World University Rankings. It is rated 10th in the UK and 54th in the world.