UNSW nearly cracked the top 100 in Wednesday’s Academic Ranking of World Universities. While the ARWU reports universities outside the top 100 in bands, UNSW VC Ian Jacobs says the university was 102nd. This is relatively easily estimated given the ARWU in-puts are known (CMM, August 16 2017 commissioned the same analysis last year).

The score is obviously important to Professor Jacobs, given UNSW, with the University of Adelaide, is the only member of the Group of Eight outside the ranking’s global top 100.

But ambivalently important, in a message to staff last night Professor Jacobs added; “we are all aware of the shortcomings of these sorts of rankings and there is of course so much more to our strategy than where we stand in global research-based rankings. … Nevertheless, the global rankings are an important indicator of our standing among the leading and most prestigious universities worldwide.”

A sufficiently important indicator for DVC R Nicholas Fisk to announce financial incentives for published papers in prestige journals – $10 000 for corresponding authors of papers in Science and Nature (CMM July 13).