UWA continues to top Australian Ag Sciences as it moves up to 15th on the international scene

The University of Western Australia is climbing global rankings as it continues to dominate agricultural studies, with new courses leading to strong growth in student numbers. In the 2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities, published late last year, UWA ranked 15th in the world and first in Australia in Agricultural Sciences. It also ranked 21st in the world and first in Australia in Environmental Science. UWA Institute of Agriculture Hackett director Professor Kadambot Siddique said the university had held the No.1 national position in agricultural sciences for many consecutive years. “To move up in the international ranking from 16th to 15th in 2022 was a tremendous achievement,” he said. Its highest international ranking achieved was 14th in 2017 and 2018, before it slid back to 18th spot in 2019 and began to climb its way back one position each year. Mr Siddique said the high quality of staff and the research they were doing ensured students were learning from academics at the forefront of these fields, which “drives our top rankings”. UWA recently added a Bachelor of Agricultural Science, Bachelor of Agribusiness and other agriculture and environmental science courses. Since then, domestic student enrolments in agriculture courses have seen strong growth, and international enrolments have recovered to pre-COVID levels. The Institute of Agriculture integrates research, education, training and communication in agriculture and related disciplines across UWA. Mr Siddique said it fostered innovation and strengthened connections with local and international research and teaching institutions and industry leaders to provide research-based solutions to food and nutritional security, environmental sustainability, and agribusiness. The ARWU, also known as the ShanghaiRanking system, began to publish world university ranking by academic subjects in 2009. By introducing improved methodology, the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects was first published in 2017. UWA also ranked fourth in the world for mining and mineral engineering, the top-ranked Australian university in the subject.