By Will Nicholas in Canberra

Controversy-ridden Australian National University slipped to its lowest spot in the latest Times Higher Education rankings, even as four of the six Aussie institutions in top 100 improved on their previous year’s scores.

ANU fell four places to 77th, while national leader the University of Melbourne jumping three places to 34th in the world.

Australian universities have, however, “bucked a trend” by not slipping down the latest global leaderboard.

Four of the six Aussie institutions in the Times Higher Education top 100 have improved on their previous year’s scores, with

The University of Sydney also bettered its last score to come 51st, followed by Monash, the University of Queensland and the University of NSW, which leapfrogged the Australian National University to rank 75th.

There were 37 Australian universities in the global top 500.

“Australia has mostly bucked a trend of decline among anglophone universities, with its universities remaining relatively stable,” Times Higher Education said.

While top-flight unis fared well, declines in student-teacher ratios and some research metrics meant Australia’s overall score fell.

Sydney’s Macquarie and Melbourne’s RMIT posted their best years on the ladder.

Oxford edged out Boston’s MIT to be the world’s best university for the 11th straight year.

The Times list is one of the two most closely-watched global university leaderboards, the other being Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).

Australian universities usually fare better in the QS rankings, which place UNSW on top at 19th in the world, followed by Melbourne Uni at 22nd and Sydney Uni at 28th, with nine Aussie institutions in the top 100.

That discrepancy comes from QS weighing academic reputation and citations per faculty – where Australian unis do well – much higher than things like teacher-student ratio or employment outcomes.

Just four Australian universities feature in the Centre for World University Ranking’s top 100, where research factors have much less sway, and none in the top 50.

Artificial intelligence and migration changes are putting renewed pressure on Australia’s university sector which, due to a surge in international students, has made education the country’s third largest export.

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