International Benchmarking Program
The University Planning Office conducts benchmarking activities with national and international peer institutions and monitors Melbourne's standing in national and international rankings. Ongoing developments in rankings and benchmarking are also reviewed and a summary of recent developments is available.
For further information regarding the reports here please contact Guy Edwards
- The complete International Benchmarking Report is now available. Individual sections can be found below.
Institutional Analysis
Institutional Profiles
The UPO annually gathers information on a group of international universities and compares data on students, staff and finance.
Rankings Analysis
2009 International Rankings Summary
2008 Rankings Summary Paper (Nov 2008)
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
- UPO Shanghai Jiao Tong University Rankings Report (2008)
- Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)
Times Higher Education Supplement-QS World Rankings
Taiwan Index
Melbourne Institute
The Melbourne Institute produces individual national rankings papers at various times. The most recent, Ranking Australian Universities, was published in October 2007.
- Ranking Australian Universities: Controlling for Scope 2007
- Rating Major Disciplines in Australian Universities 2006
A more recent discussion paper of rankings and Australian universities by the same author as the above rankings was presented at the Australian Financial Review conference in March 2008.
- Methodology, meaning and usefulness of rankings (March 2008)
International Directions
- UNESCO Higher Education
- OECD Directorate for Education
- OECD Education at a Glance 2009
- Education at a Glance summarises Australia’s education performance relative to other OECD countries. Topics covered include education participation and attainment, funding, and unemployment and underemployment amongst young adults in OECD countries. Education at a Glance 2009 includes data for OECD countries up to the year 2007.
- SourceOECD
- SourceOECD is the OECD’s portal to journals, publications and research produced across the organisation. The University maintains a subscription to a substantial proportion of OECD data and publications; staff can access SourceOECD through the University Library’s SuperSearch. Notable publications include:
- Journal of Higher Education Management & Policy
- Higher education country reviews
- Education at a glance
- OECD.Stat, covering the OECD’s collection of economic and statistical data.
- OECD Informal Ministerial Meeting on Evaluating the Outcomes of Higher Education
- OECD Higher Education for the Knowledge Society (overview)
- Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies, University of Twente, Netherlands
- National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) – The Higher Educational Transformation of China
- World Bank Data and Research (Browse by topic — Education)
- Approaches to Teaching and Learning
- National Student Survey (UK)
- National Survey of Student Engagement (USA)
- i-Graduate (International Student Barometer)
Other Links and References
- Leiden Rankings
- Macleans Rankings
- International Rankings Expert Group (IREG)- Berlin Principles
- Institute for Higher Education Policy - College and University Rankings Systems
- For further explanation of the h-index see J. E. Hirsch’s paper, An Index to Quantify an Individual’s Research Output
- Higher Education Management and Policy Issue 19 Vol 2
USA Data
- US Department of Education — Institute of Education Sciences (IES), National Centre for Education Statistics (NCES)
- IPEDS – Integrated Post-secondary Database
- IPEDS is a free, interactive database that provides public access to data submitted by US institutions on students, staff and funding. Data is highly detailed, but often significantly lagged in public releases.
- US National Centre for Education Statistics – Postsecondary Education Descriptive Analysis Reports (PEDAR)
- PEDAR is a collection of analytical reports and working papers covering post-secondary (higher and vocational education) in the United States. PEDAR is regularly updated, and topics include student debt burdens, teacher-education choices, equity & access and graduate outcomes.
- The Centre for Measuring University Performance (The Centre)
- Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)
- US News & World Report — Education section
- Council for the Advancement and Support of Education
- The Boston College — Centre for International Higher Education
Canada Data
UK Data
- Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE)
- UK Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)
- HESA manages higher education data on behalf of HEFCE and the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. HESA publishes summary data and analytical reports on UK higher education, some of which are made available to the public.
- HEIDI (Higher Education Information Database for Institutions)
- HEIDI provides public access to an interactive database of summary statistics for higher education institutions in the UK. Free registration is required for access.
- UK Higher Education International Unit
- Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI)
- Department for Business, Innovation & Skills
- Universities and other higher education institutions in the United Kingdom now fall under the purview of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS); prior to 2009, UK HEIs were the responsibility of the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS).
- Current Reports and Publications (BIS)
- Reports and Publications (DIUS, Pre-2009)
- Innovation Nation — White paper (also available executive summary)
Australian Data
- Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR)
- Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
- Australian Council for Educational Research
- Graduate Careers Australia
- Group of Eight (Go8)
- Universities Australia (UA)
- Australian Education International (AEI)
- Publications and Research
- AEI Research Snapshots are updated regularly, and cover market data and general research about Australian international education. AEI produces regular research reports on the value of Australian international education export services.
IDP Education
Institutional Links
- Australian National University
- The University of Queensland
- The University of Sydney
- The University of Hong Kong
- National University of Singapore
- Tsing Hua University
- The University of British Columbia
- The University of Toronto
- University of California - Berkeley
- The University of Chicago
- University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
- University of Virginia
- The University of Edinburgh
- Imperial College London
- The University of Manchester
- The University of Nottingham
- University College Dublin
- ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich)