Our Performance
World rankings
The University of Adelaide is ranked in the world's top 100 universities. We are recognised globally as a leading research university.
This is measured by the best-known world university ranking methodologies available – Times Higher Education, QS World University Rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
Quick facts
- Consistently ranked in the top 1% of the world’s universities.
- 6 specialist research institutes.
- Approximately 40 research centres.
- 110 Rhodes Scholars (to date).
- 1625 academic research experts.
- 2340 research students.
- Supported 700+ start ups since 2001.
- 67 research fields rated at or above world standard (Excellence in Research Australia 2018).
- 41 research fields achieved maximum rating 5 out of 5 (Excellence in Research Australia 2018).
Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA)
The University of Adelaide is a world leader in fields that underpin innovation across industries critical to our State’s and our community’s future, and in areas that translate to benefits for society.
The high quality of our research across a vast array of fields was recognised in the 2018 Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) evaluation, conducted by the Australian Research Council (ARC).
The ERA results released in March 2019 provide a comprehensive assessment of the University’s research outputs for the period 2014-2018 and demonstrate that the University is a clear world leader in research.
More than 22,500 individual research outputs by academic staff and affiliates of the University were assessed, including published papers, authored and edited books, book chapters, conference papers, and creative works.
The University now has 67 research sub-fields (100%) that are assessed to be world-class or above, including research in engineering, mathematics, science, medical and health sciences, agricultural sciences, artificial intelligence, and the arts.
Highlights
- 100% of the University's research sub-fields were assessed as being “at or above world standard".
- Across all sub-disciplines of research assessed, the latest ERA has found that the University of Adelaide has:
- 41 research fields rated 5 – well above world standard – the maximum rating
- 16 research fields rated 4 – above world standard
- 10 research fields rated 3 – at world standard.
We have seen a significant lift in both volume and quality of our research outputs, summarised in the table below:
| Category | 2018 | 2015 | 2012 | 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 – well above world standard | 41 | 35 | 18 | 16 |
| 4 – above world standard | 16 | 20 | 21 | 17 |
| 3 – world standard | 10 | 11 | 21 | 27 |