CQUniversity and James Cook University have this morning been named amongst the best universities in the world, claiming a spot within the Top 500 and Top 300 list respectively according to the prestigious and well-respected Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

This is an outstanding achievement given there are over 22,000 universities worldwide that are considered for the Annual list.

CQUniversity had previously been in the Top 600 universities but this year dramatically improved it's ranking as a direct result of a strong focus on excellence, engagement and equity.

Interim Vice-Chancellor Professor Hilary Winchester said, “We are extremely pleased with our ranking in the World’s Top 500 Universities as this shows that our commitment to inclusivity and our collaboration with community and industry is paying off.”
 
CQUniversity has been on an impressive growth trajectory since 2009 and has set in place a solid agenda when it comes to the student experience, learning and teaching, research, and engagement. This is a strategy that is clearly paying dividends.
 
Despite the prestige of the ranking, Professor Winchester made it clear that CQUniversity would continue to be Australia’s most inclusive university. “We are proud to embrace people from all backgrounds and the diversity in our program offerings and flexible delivery methods are what set us apart from the rest.”
 
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings were founded in 2004 and provide a definitive list of the world's best universities, evaluated across teaching, research, international outlook, reputation and more. The rankings are released annually and are trusted by students, academics, university administrators, industry and governments across the world.

James Cook University’s standing as a world-class institution has been bolstered, with the global rankings placing JCU in the top 251-300 of the world’s universities for the second year in a row.

JCU Vice Chancellor, Professor Sandra Harding said the University continues to perform very strongly when compared to the world’s largest, most successful universities. “Both in Australia and around the globe, these results demonstrate that JCU is a highly competitive, research-intensive university.

“JCU continues to deliver ground-breaking, internationally recognised research that makes a difference to people in the Tropics and beyond,” Professor Harding said. JCU was ranked 11th of the 35 Australian universities that were selected.

This year is the first year in the history of the rankings that a university outside the United States has taken out the top spot with Oxford University beating out the California Institute of Technology. Based on the trajectory of our universities the Top 100 is looking very possible by 2030.