UNSW consistently scores highly in a range of national and international rankings. We have been ranked in the top 50 world universities, cementing our position as a global leader. UNSW came in at 47 on the UK Times Higher Education QS World University Rankings 2009, one of six Australian institutions to make the top 50.


The ranking also scored UNSW as 18th for employer satisfaction with the quality of UNSW graduates in the workplace. This success is reflected in UNSW graduates earning the highest median starting salary of graduates from any Australian university (Australian Graduate Survey 2008, first degree Australian graduates).


UNSW is a founding member of The Group of Eight (Go8) - a coalition of leading Australian universities, intensive in research and comprehensive in general and professional education.


2010 Good Universities Guide


UNSW scored highly in the 2010 Good Universities Guide, being awarded the maximum five-star rating for seven key performance indicators: including research grants, research intensivity, student-staff ratio, staff qualifications, cultural diversity, graduate starting salary and positive graduate outcomes.



Outstanding Learning and Teaching Results


UNSW was recognised for its outstanding performance in learning and teaching in the Australian Government's 2009 Learning and Teaching Performance Fund. The top A1 category was awarded to UNSW for 'Excellence' in learning and teaching for undergraduate students in Science, Computing, Engineering, Architecture, Business, Law, Economics, Humanities, Arts and Education.

The Fund rewards universities that demonstrate excellence in teaching and learning for domestic undergraduates, awarding scores across discipline groupings. UNSW received a total of $6.9 million from the Fund, the largest allocation to any Australian university.


Postgraduate Rankings


• In 2010 UNSW has received $47.8 million - more research funding than any other Australian university – in grants from the Australian Research Council (ARC).

• UNSW is the top performer in ARC Linkage grants, receiving $11.36 million this year for 28 projects involving collaboration with industry partners.

• The AGSM MBA Program was ranked as the leading full time MBA in Australia and among the top 40 MBAs worldwide in the Financial Times (UK) 2009 2010 rankings. This was the 10th consecutive year it was ranked in the top 100 MBA Programs worldwide.

• In the same survey, alumni ranked the organisational behaviour academics teaching the AGSM MBA Program the 6th best in the world.

• The AGSM MBA Program was no. 1 in Australia and Asia, as judged by the prestigious Forbes biennial rankings in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009. The number 1 ranking in Australia and Asia, also extends to the Executive Programs for Open Enrolment and Custom Programs, Financial Times (UK) 2002- 2006.

• UNSW's accounting research was ranked no. 1 out of 1087 institutions worldwide in the June 2007 edition of the international journal Accounting and Finance.


Other Rankings


• The Faculty of Law was the only faculty of a public university in Australia to receive top rating across all categories of assessment in the 2009 Good Universities Guide

• The Commonwealth Government rated UNSW as the leading Australian university for the quality of learning and teaching of Law in both 2007 and 2008.

• The Faculty of Engineering was ranked 1st in Australia Times Higher Education (QS 2008) and the Melbourne Institute of Advanced Studies and ranked 27th in the World (THES-QS 2008). It also has the leading Photovoltaic and Solar Energy Research Centre in the Asia-Pacific region

• The AGSM MBA: 1st in Australia and 6th Best of Non-US MBAs (Forbes 07)

• Australian School of Business: 1st in Australia (AGSM MBA) 2010 Financial Times top 100 rankings of global full time MBA courses

• Australian School of Business: 32nd in World (AGSM MBA) 2010 Financial Times top 100 rankings of global full time MBA courses


Other Facts and Figures


• The new Lowy Cancer Research Centre, a state-of-the-art research facility, opened in March 2010.

• The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences hosts the UNSW Confucius Centre in collaboration with Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

• The Faculty of Engineering is the largest Engineering School in Australia, with over 7,500 students enrolled.

• The Faculty of Medicine has the largest undergraduate medical program in Australia and is one of the leading research-intensive medical Faculties in Australia with a research budget of over $100M per annum.

• The Australian School of Business is the largest Business School in Australia.

• Researchers in the Faculty of Science have developed a Green Steel technology to turn plastic and disused rubber tyres into steel. This ground breaking technology boosts steel making productivity, cuts power consumption and reduces greenhouse gas emissions

• Researchers in the Faculty of Science received over $11.5 million dollars in Discovery Research Grants for 2009.

• Researchers in the Faculty of Science were awarded 3 Federation Fellowships in the award's final year (2008), the highest in Australia.

• The UNSW Village opened in 2010 bringing the number of beds in student accommodation to 3,116. Of these, 1,125 are in residential colleges and 1,991 in self-catered apartments.

• UNSW has Australia’s oldest and largest on-campus university preparation Foundation Year.

• The Institute of Languages was the first on-campus university language preparation centre in Australia.

• The College of Fine Arts (COFA) has dominated the Samstag Scholarship with COFA graduates taking out the prize in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

• COFA graduates have won the Helen Lempiere travelling Art Scholarship eight times in the past ten years. The Scholarship is one of the richest prizes for emerging contemporary visual artists in Australia.

• The Archibald prize has been won by COFA graduates three times, by Wendy Sharpe, Adam Cullen and most recently by Del Kathryn Barton in 2008.