USC Climbing the Rankings
30 July 2005
More students and the general public seem to be interested in
obtaining information about university rankings, league tables,
course costs, staff qualifications, and entry standards. There is
now a national web site that provides some of that information, and
there are an increasing number of guides of one kind or another,
and even an increasing number of universities ranking universities
or university courses across the world.
Such information can provide a helpful indication of which
courses to undertake. But such information can also be out of date,
misleading, or provided without context. But for those who want
uncluttered simplicity, without all the complex weighing of sample
size and all those other equally important factors, then the tables
can have some appeal.
Rankings are very important in the UK, US and Canada, and it is
the universities themselves that probably become the most excited
or stressed about the outcomes, most of which have financial
ramifications.
One of Australia's guides was released last week and the
country's thirty-seven public and two private universities were
pitted against each other in the usual game of, for the most part,
comparing apples with oranges.
Not surprisingly, given their age, facilities, supporters and
scale, the usual suspects occupied the top research categories.
They jealously guard their status as 'research-intensive', whilst
pursuing strategies to further increase their research income,
often at the expense of other universities. Wollongong is one of
the few to break into the ranks of mainly the 100+ years old
'sandstones'.
The data specifically on the Sunshine Coast grows each year. We
remain the newest and most dependent on government income. Despite
our increasing research and consultancy activity locally, by
sectoral standards we continue to fight to obtain national
competitive grants.
As we continue to grow, however, some interesting features are
emerging. USC is appealing to more talented school leavers each
year and we are now in the highest category of the proportion of
entrants who are school leavers. It is a feature mirrored in the
statistics of our most prestigious high schools on the Coast, with
USC becoming the University of choice for an increasing proportion
annually.
Once here, students in expanding numbers rate their educational
experience highly. We are again in the top, five-star category in
that respect and it is a categorisation that none of our major
metropolitan or regional competitors can match. In fact some of our
fiercest competitors are in the bottom rankings of this category.
Information of this kind is vitally important for both
school-leavers and mature undergraduates because it means that the
benefits actually derived from our courses often outstrip the
'status' arguments advanced by the research-intensives, for which
the undergraduate experience seems a lesser consideration.
One of the necessary signal features of a great university
education is the qualification profile of staff. In this important
respect we are in the highest category along with Queensland, and
the Australian National University in Canberra. That speaks volumes
for both current quality and potential for further
developments.
The categories about which I am still most concerned are those
associated with job prospects and placements. Graduates are still
heavily dependent on the local economy generating jobs in larger
numbers than is currently the case, in order to retain our
brightest graduates. This is the main reason why we are so
committed to play our part in the innovation and job-generating
agenda in new economy jobs. The University and the region together
have to generate more openings for graduates.
Professor Paul Thomas is Vice-Chancellor of University of
the Sunshine Coast