29 Mar 2010

NZ world leader in producing top universities - report

8:02 am on 29 March 2010

New Zealand is the world leader in producing top-ranked universities, given the size of its economy, a Ministry of Education report shows.

The report says getting that information across should help with the recruitment of international students.

International rankings have become increasingly important to universities around the world.

The rankings cover staff-student ratios, research quality and the number of foreign students.

The Education Ministry report shows that, given the size of its economy, New Zealand has more universities in the two main international rankings than any other country.

The report shows in both rankings, New Zealand's performance is much higher than than of Australia and only Israel comes close.

It shows New Zealand does less well when the rankings are considered by share of population, though the country remains in the top 10.

The ministry says the raw rankings understate New Zealand's relative performance and getting that message across is the challenge for recruiters of international students.