Webometrics rankings measure of web presence and reach.

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

Universities are ranked 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.

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.

Webometrics 2017 Rankings for Australia

Aust rank University World rank
1 University of Melbourne 69
2 University of Queensland 73
3 Australian National University 89
4 University of New South Wales 91
5 University of Sydney 107
6 University of Adelaide 162
7 University of Western Australia 186
8 Monash University 198
9 Macquarie University 321
10 Curtin University 326
11 University of Wollongong 350
12 Queensland University of Technology 350
13 Griffith University 371
14 University of Technology Sydney 373
15 RMIT University 389
16 Deakin University 417
17 University of Newcastle 428
18 University of Tasmania 445
19 La Trobe University 478
20 University of South Australia 487
21 James Cook University 541
22 Flinders University 559
23 Western Sydney University 602
24 University of New England 655
25 Murdoch University 675
26 Charles Sturt University 748
27 Victoria University 797
28 University of Southern Queensland 801
29 Edith Cowan University 805
30 University of Canberra 951
31 Australian Catholic University 1020
32 Southern Cross University 1054
33 CQUniversity 1095
34 Charles Darwin University 1187
35 Bond University 1293
36 Swinburne University of Technology 1311
37 Federation University Australia 1526
38 University of the Sunshine Coast 1535
39 University of Notre Dame Australia 1826
40 University of Divinity 13882
41 Torrens University Australia 14505

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.

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