Over half Australia’s public universities make the world top 500 hundred in the new Times Higher list of teaching and research performance in the physical sciences. No less than 18 are on the new list, which did not make the cut last year.

ANU stays in the top spot, up seven places to 31 but it is the universities of Melbourne and Sydney which made the big improvement. UniMelb is up 22 places to =52 and the University of Sydney enters the list at 97, after not appearing at all last year (what happened there?). They are followed by the rest of the Group of Eight; University of Queensland at 93 (up from 98), UNSW at 100 (down from 83), the universities of Adelaide and New South Wales (neither rated last year) and Monash U in the 101-125 group.

A further 15 Australian universities appear this year, but were not on the last list.

151-175: James Cook University

201-250: Curtin U, Macquarie U, U of Tasmania, U of Wollongong

251-300: Griffith U, QUT, Swinburne U

301-400: Flinders U, RMIT, Uni of South Australia, Southern Cross U

401-500: La Trobe U, Murdoch U and University of Newcastle

The global top ten is much the same as last year; Princeton first (third in the last ranking), Harvard second (first last time), Stanford U third (second), MIT fourth (fifth), University of Cambridge fifth (fourth), University of Oxford sixth (sixth), CalTech seven (seven), ETH Zurich eight (eight) Imperial College London nine (11) and University of Chicago ten (12).