Melbourne still one of the best university cities

26 May 2008

Melbourne has moved up one spot to sit at fourth place in this year’s Global University City Index, ahead of Sydney and behind London, Boston and Tokyo, as one of the world’s top university cities.

The Index ‘measures cities on their ability to establish strong universities’, and was developed by RMIT as a means of evaluating the world’s top ‘knowledge economies’. Cities are assessed on the following criteria: ‘liveability, education expenditure, the number of graduates produced and how many universities the city has in the Financial Times Higher Education Top Universities list – of which Melbourne has three – The University of Melbourne, Monash University and RMIT.

However, academics and leading business experts have warned that unless additional funding is provided for university research and infrastructure, Melbourne could lose its current status.

The Vice-Chancellor of RMIT, Ms Margaret Gardner, believes that ‘there are areas where we could do better, and some of those things have to do with the investment in our universities, both in education and research.’

The Index was released for the first time last year and was accompanied by a report by the Committee for Melbourne. The report claimed that Melbourne had reached a ‘tipping point’, and would require funding and attention from both the government and business in order to maintain its position as one of the top university cities.

The top ten university cities according to this year’s Index are:

 

 

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