Recognition of research excellence in US rankings

The University of Sydney has continued to excel in the US News Best Global Universities Rankings, placing 29th globally and 2nd in Australia. 

The 10th annual US News Best Global Universities rankings (2024-2025) ranks 2,250 of the world's top universities overall as well as by region and country, and examines leaders in key academic subject areas. 

The University has two subjects ranked in the top ten and five subjects in the top 20 globally - Endocrinology and Metabolism (9th), Electrical Engineering (10th), Artificial Intelligence (14th), Arts and Humanities (16th) and Social Sciences and Public Health (17th). 

The University has 11 subjects in the top 30 and 23 in the top 50.   

We were number one in Australia for Cardiac and Cardiovascular Systems, Clinical Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Oncology and Surgery. 

“I commend all of our staff for this strong performance, coming hard on the heels of our recent ranking of 18th in the world in the QS World University Rankings,” said Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Mark Scott.

“Excellence in rankings is just one of many metrics that continue to demonstrate the quality and competitiveness of Australian higher education, a global powerhouse made possible through continued investment in high performance. 

“At the University of Sydney our commitment to research, teaching and learning includes an unprecedented investment recruiting the best early and mid-career researchers and educators from around the world with 40 Sydney Horizon Fellowships and 330 new teaching staff including 220 Sydney Horizon Educators  to improve the student experience and advance teaching practice. This is the largest investment by any Australian institution.”

Professor Emma Johnston Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), said:

“It is satisfying and a credit to our staff that we performed strongly on metrics for regional research reputation, output of books, total citations and publications.

“In the past three years (2021-2024), our academics have produced more than 9,773 co-authored publications with North American partners including Harvard University, who were again ranked number one in the world in these rankings. Harvard is our leading North American collaborating organisation with 1,417 jointly published papers in that period.

 "We also partner with the University of Toronto (ranked 17th), Cornell University (19th) and the University of California San Diego (21st).

“These international collaborations help drive our research excellence and international impact.” 

Areas of current research at the University include:

• developing a gene-editing tool with greater accuracy and flexibility than the industry standard, CRISPR
• sexual harassment being pervasive and persistent in retail work, with young women most at risk 
• developing cameras with the potential to protect the images and data collected by smart home devices and internet-of-things technology
• the first musician and composer ever to be awarded an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship to communicate the urgency of climate change and lead social change through music
• salvaged underwater heritage losing its historical context because of the involvement of commercial and illicit interests
• prescription oral retinoids being linked to serious congenital abnormalities in babies of women falling pregnant while on this medication
• establishing The Net Zero Institute, which brings together more than 150 researchers across various disciplines to develop practical decarbonisation solutions, from extracting critical minerals from waste to net zero health and green computing. 

In other rankings results this year the University achieved six disciplines ranked in the global top 20 and 36 in the top 50 in the 2024 in the QS World University Rankings by Subject .