The quality of research at Charles Darwin University is recognised in a new international ranking of universities.
The Spain-based SCImago Institutions 2009 World Report has just published the first index of institutions that are active in research, and ranked CDU in the top five Australian universities.
SCImago used various measures to create the index, including the number of times a university’s scholarly papers are quoted in the work of other researchers.
The Vice-Chancellor of CDU, Professor Barney Glover, said CDU’s ranking of fifth place against 36 Australian universities was an outstanding achievement.
Only the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland, the University of NSW and the Australian National University were ranked more highly than CDU.
“This index highlights both the productivity of our researchers and the high quality of their work,” Professor Glover said.
“CDU staff and students, and indeed the Territory as a whole, have every reason to be proud of this achievement.”
He said the university was renowned for its research expertise particularly in tropical and desert knowledge of the Australian and Asia-Pacific region, with particular emphasis on Indigenous knowledge.
“CDU researchers collaborate across disciplines to develop strong research teams to tackle complex issues. We also place a high priority on research collaboration with universities both in Australia and internationally,” Professor Glover said.
He said the result augured well for CDU as the Australian Government was encouraging universities to concentrate on research and by 2012-13 would allocate $1.7 billion according to how universities performed. A large proportion of this funding would flow from the institutions’ research performance.
CDU researchers have just won funding of more than $2.5 million in the latest round of grants from the Australian Research Council.
In all, SCImago ranked more than 2000 of the world’s best research universities and research organisations.