Top-ranked universities have more money than Australian unis could dream of

Education Minister Christopher Pyne claimed his plan to deregulate university fees was essential to ensure Australia’s universities continue to climb the international rankings and don’t “slide into mediocrity”. At present – depending on which ranking you refer to - Australia has between four and eight universities in the top 100 universities in the world, with the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University and the University of Queensland ranking in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE) and the QS World University Rankings. Australia has more highly ranked universities than France, China, Japan or Russia. When compared to the US, Australian spends 1.6% of GDP on higher education, the US 2.7%. Australia has a population of 23 million, the US 319 million. Australia has 43 universities, the US has over 4500. The US would have to have 57 universities in the rankings (it has 46 in the THE) to match Australia’s “GDP to top university” ratio. This says we’re performing remarkably well – and that’s a tribute to our higher education sector rather than our governments