RMIT research agenda drives THE ranking success

RMIT has made considerable gains in the past decade in major global rankings systems, including QS WUR and THE Impact.

This is evidence of our high-quality education, industry partnerships and innovative research that addresses the economic, social and environmental challenges of our times.

Distinguished Professor Calum Drummond AO, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation portfolio says it is pleasing to see RMIT continue to improve in global rankings. 

“We have a firm focus on building our research excellence, influence and impact on a global scale and this result demonstrates we are continuing to go from strength to strength in a highly contested space," he said. 

In this latest release by THE, RMIT saw improvements in research quality with an uplift in citations (published research that is referenced by leading academics from other institutions around the world) as well as research impact (where cited research is focused on social, economic and environmental issues that are of global importance). 

The University also improved across research productivity and research income measures: we are publishing more research of higher quality and attracting funding from various sources to invest in knowledge creation and innovative technologies.

Other key improvements relate to the industry category (income and patents). RMIT is proud to work in partnership with industry and government around the world to drive innovation and address workforce skills shortages in priority sectors like the clean economy, care economy and digital transformation.

RMIT jumped 17 places in this year's QS WUR to secure equal 123 globally. In THE Impact, RMIT ranked in the top five institutions globally and first for Reducing Inequalities (SDG 10). 

Learn more about our research impact.

About THE World University Rankings

Since 2004, THE has ranked research-intensive universities against five categories: Teaching (the learning environment), research environment (volume, income and reputation), research quality (citation impact, research strength, research excellence and research influence), international outlook (staff, students and research), and industry (income and patents).

This year THE ranked 2,092 universities from across 133 countries with 38 from Australia. Learn more about THE rankings.