Swinburne rises in prestigious Academic Ranking of World Universities

Swinburne has risen close to 100 places in this year’s Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), debuting in the top 300 of the world’s best universities for 2020.

This year, Swinburne placed an estimated rank of 269, a significant rise compared to a rank of 367 last year.

“This is an historically significant outcome for Swinburne,” says Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise), Professor Bronwyn Fox. “Placing in the top 300 in the ARWU for the first time speaks to the quality of our research and the calibre of our researchers,” she adds.

Swinburne has also improved its position in other rankings across the board in 2020. These include placing in the top 400 of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings as well as in the 2021 QS World University Rankings.

Additionally, the Times Higher Education subject ranking 2020 ranked Swinburne in the top 200 for Engineering and Technology while the QS World University Rankings by Subject has placed Swinburne in the top 50 worldwide for Art and Design.

“Our performance in these rankings demonstrate our strategy to be a dynamic and digitalised university delivering global impact in science, technology and innovation,” explains Professor Fox.

Delivering research with impact

Swinburne continues to pursue high-quality research, searching for solutions at the intersection of technology and humanity.

“We have outstanding researchers dedicated to driving social and economic impact and producing innovative solutions to real-world problems and doing this despite the disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 situation,” says Professor Fox.

Recent achievements include:

• Partnering with CSIRO to create a pilot plant for a world-first process for the additive manufacturing of carbon fibre composite materials
• Joining forces with Able Australia to produce 3D-printed headbands to protect COVID-19 transmission among workers in the disability sector
• Being part of an Australian research team that recorded the world’s fastest internet speed from a single optical chip
• Securing up to $3.64 million to support Swinburne’s involvement in the 2020 ARC Industrial Transformation Research Program
• Playing a key role in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society

Academic Ranking of World Universities

The Academic Ranking of World Universities is considered one of the most prestigious and authoritative global university rankings. It ranks universities on several indicators of academic or research performance, including quality of education, highly-cited researchers, research output and per capita performance.