Subject rankings are like The Bachelor(ette) – people say they pay no attention but everybody wants to know who got a rose. In the new edition of the QS Subject Rankings the University of Queensland received less a rose than a bed of them – appearing on 44 of the 48 lists of the top 50 discipline based university departments in the world. UoQ also has a  department in the world top five, for sports-related subjects.

Australian universities rating number two in the world are:  Monash U (pharmacy), Curtin U (mining engineering) and UniSydney (sports-related).

Overall nine universities make top ten lists, with all of the Group of Eight (except the University of Adelaide) included. Curtin U continues its climb up this, and many other, rankings and UTS scores a top ten. The full list is: ANU and UniMelb (four each), UniSydney, UNSW, UoQ (two each), Curtin U, Monash U, UWA and UTS one each.

Overall 34 Australian universities appear on 47 out of 48 discipline lists, (we aren’t much for classics) with a net improvement of 44 (ratings dropped 141 times but increased in 185 instances.)

Particular discipline strengths are in: nursing (nine of the world top 50), mining engineering (eight), anatomy and physiology, art and design, earth and marine sciences, education and law (all with seven departments).