Australian universities celebrate high-performance research rankings, but William Locke points out they have less to applaud on their teaching scores  

Australia looms large on league tables (ARWU, QS, Times Higher), with consistent performances over the last decade or so by Uni Melbourne, ANU, Uni Sydney and Uni Queensland as well as big improvements by UNSW and Monash U.

How they do it is down to money and management, as Professor Locke (Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education) explains in a new paper for the journal International Higher Education appearing Friday, US east coast time).

The cash has come from student fees, domestic and international. Acknowledging the work of Frank Larkins, Professor Locke points to the big five (Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland, UNSW and Monash), which have had average revenue per EFT, 50 per cent higher than the all-uni outcome.

But it’s the five’s money management that mattered, increasing asset bases, increasing discretionary revenues by recruiting casuals for teaching.

The result is more money available for research but it came at a price, “high student-staff ratios and relatively modest teaching reputations.”

“The big question is whether this performance – in financial management and rankings position – is sustainable in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, an unsupportive government and geopolitical vulnerability that Australian universities find themselves in,” Professor Locke asks.