UniSA’s reputation for excellence is reflected in a range of recent independent assessments and rankings, research outcomes, and staff and student achievements.
It is also built upon the paths forged by our pioneering, antecedent institutions whose contribution to the economic, social and cultural life of South Australia date back more than 150 years. Those organisations include:
Today, the university continues to earn national and global recognition for outstanding achievement in a number of areas including:
- Institutional awards and rankings: The 2013 Times Higher Education ranked us in the top 50 of its Top 100 Global Universities aged under 50. UniSA moved from moved up 13 places to rank 48 and is also the youngest Australian institution to feature in the top 50. In the QS World University Rankings, we continue to be ranked in the top three per cent of more than 10,000 universities worldwide.
- Teaching and learning: The proportion of our staff holding doctorate qualifications remains above the national and state average, and work is near completion on the new $85 million learning centre at our City West campus.
- Research: The 2012 Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) evaluation rated more than 86 per cent of our assessed research at world-class or above, and in the highly-competitive Cooperative Research Centre scheme we were ranked number one in Australia for income received from Commonwealth.
- Students: Honours graduate Treena Clark was named 2012 SA NAIDOC Scholar of the Year, and Dr Luke Grzeskowiak (who completed his PhD at UniSA’s Division of Health Sciences) was recognised at the 2013 Science Excellence Awards SA, winning the PhD Research Excellence (Health and Medical Sciences) category.
- Staff: Senior research fellow Dr Drew Evans was named the 2013 South Australian Tall Poppy of the Year at the Science Excellence Awards SA. Dr Evans designs thin film coatings for common surfaces and he played a key role in developing a lightweight, shatterproof plastic car mirror that is currently being adopted by car manufacturers around the globe.
- Infrastructure: In June 2013, then Prime Minister, the Hon Julia Gillard, visited our City West campus to announce a $40m investment in the formation of a new partnership between the University of South Australia and SA Pathology to accommodate and support the growth of the Centre for Cancer Biology (CCB).
Further achievements are detailed here.