Webometrics publishes web rankings of Australian universities as part of their world rankings.

Webometrics ranking

Webometrics ranks universities by:

  • the volume of material they post on the internet and
  • the number of external links to that material.

The rankings indicate a university's reputation and prominence. They complement research and reputation rankings from QS, Times and Shanghai ARWU.

Webometrics 2022 Rankings for Australia

Aust rank University World rank
1 University of Melbourne 40
2 University of New South Wales 45
3 University of Sydney 51
4 University of Queensland 52
5 Monash University 57
6 Australian National University 80
7 University of Adelaide 102
8 University of Western Australia 131
9 University of Technology Sydney 173
10 Deakin University 197
11 Curtin University 203
12 Macquarie University 205
13 Queensland University of Technology 206
14 RMIT University 219
15 Griffith University 231
16 University of Wollongong 265
17 University of Newcastle 316
18 La Trobe University 323
19 University of Tasmania 355
20 University of South Australia 386
21 Western Sydney University 399
22 Flinders University 415
23 James Cook University 455
24 Edith Cowan University 565
25 Murdoch University 602
26 University of Southern Queensland 682
27 Charles Sturt University 712
28 Victoria University 732
29 University of New England 739
30 Australian Catholic University 745
31 University of Canberra 791
32 CQUniversity 927
33 Southern Cross University 931
34 Swinburne University of Technology 968
35 University of the Sunshine Coast 1001
36 Charles Darwin University 1013
37 Bond University 1193
38 Federation University Australia 1241
39 Torrens University Australia 2503
40 University of Notre Dame Australia 2623
41 University of Divinity 11039

Webometrics Ranking Method

The ranking formula has 4 components:

  1. Impact (50%): Number of links to the university's website
  2. Presence (17%): Number of web pages published by the university
  3. Openness (17%): Number of academic publications on the internet
  4. Excellence (17%): Number of academic publications on the internet that are cited often.

Value to Future Students

The Webometrics rankings offer an alternative measure of the overall strength of universities.

According to Webometrics, the purpose of the rankings is to promote global access to academic knowledge produced by universities. To pursue higher Webometrics rankings, a university needs to enlarge its online academic research footprint.

Top universities are publishing millions of pages produced by dozens of departments and services, hundreds of research teams and thousands of scholars. Strong web presence informs of a wide variety of factors that are clearly correlated with the global quality of the institution.

While encouraging open access to research knowledge is a good thing, the rankings have limited relevance to study choices.

  • The rankings objectively measure web presence.
  • Web presence and education quality do not have a strong, direct relationship.

A large web presence is a combination of university size, research focus, and commitment to web publishing. Increasing any of these indicates institutional strength. But they are not reliable ways to improve teaching services.

More Australian university rankings

Combined lists

Australian unis compared

Shanghai

Shanghai ARWU - Research

Times

Times Higher Education - Reputation