The University of Melbourne and Australian National University have dominated Australian institutions in the QS World University Rankings by Subject. QS puts Melbourne as the leading local institution in 15 out of the 30 subjects, while ANU led in 9 subjects. Meanwhile, The University of Melbourne’s executive education arm has been ranked number one in Australia by the UK’s Financial Times newspaper.
Despite domestic concerns about the quality of teacher training, four universities have been rated in the world top 10 for education, with Melbourne University ranked third, followed by Monash (6), University of Sydney (8), and Queensland University (10).
Other subjects with strong Australian representation globally included psychology at Melbourne (7), UQ (9), University of New South Wales (10), and Sydney (14). In law Melbourne was rated fifth, Sydney (10), UNSW (12), Monash (13) and ANU (14).
Melbourne made the top ten in six subjects, including ninth in medicine. ANU made the top ten in five subjects including 6th in politics, 7th in history and 10th in philosophy. QS rated University of Queensland as the top Australian university in Environmental Science despite the Excellence in Research for Australia giving higher scores to ANU and James Cook.
| SUBJECT | NO 1 IN AUSTRALIA | GLOBAL RANKING |
|---|---|---|
| English | Syd Uni | 12 |
| History | ANU | 7 |
| Linguistics | Melb Uni | 6 |
| Modern languages | ANU | 16 |
| Philosophy | ANU | 10 |
| Computer science | Melb Uni | 13 |
| Chemical engineering | Melb Uni | 12 |
| Civil engineering | Syd Uni | 12 |
| Electrical engineering | ANU | 28 |
| Mechanical engineering | Melb Uni | 25 |
| Agriculture | UQ | 7 |
| Biological sciences | Melb Uni | 14 |
| Medicine | Melb Uni | 9 |
| Pharmacy | Monash | 7 |
| Psychology | Melb Uni | 7 |
| Chemistry | Melb Uni | 23 |
| Earth/marine sciences | ANU | 13 |
| Enviro. sciences | UQ | 9 |
| Geography | ANU | 8 |
| Materials science | UNSW | 25 |
| Mathematics | ANU | 16 |
| Physics/astronomy | Melb Uni | 24 |
| Accounting/finance | Melb Uni | 7 |
| Communications | Melb Uni | 14 |
| Economics | Melb Uni | 20 |
| Education | Melb Uni | 3 |
| Law | Melb Uni | 5 |
| Politics/international studies | ANU | 6 |
| Sociology | ANU | 17 |
| Statistics | Melb Uni | 17 |
Source: The Australian
