Two Cairns universities are in the global spotlight today after being named on a prestigious list of the world’s best 100 young universities.

The Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Rankings listed James Cook University and Central Queensland University in 38th and 90th places respectively.
The influential list, released annually, ranks the world’s best universities aged 50 years or under.
Young universities considered for the list are measured on their teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry income.
This is JCU’s second time in the number 38 slot, while the announcement marks the first time CQU has made it into the top 100.
Both JCU and CQU are also listed in the current THE World University Rankings, which places them within the top two per cent of universities worldwide.
Only two other Queensland universities – Queensland University of Technology and Griffith University – were included within the top 100 of young universities, which was topped by Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

JUBILANT JCU
JCU spokesperson said the university was thrilled to again be included on the “highly-respected” list.
“These rankings showcase the rising stars of the university sector, and JCU is proud to continue to be one of the world’s top 50 universities under 50 years old.
“While these results are calibrated to reflect the special characteristics of younger universities, JCU has also achieved outstanding results in global rankings of universities of all ages.”
The placing comes during the same week as the Centre for World University Rankings ranked JCU as number one in the world for marine and freshwater biology, and number two for biodiversity conservation.

CQU SOARING
CQU’s Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Scott Bowman said the ranking was a significant leap forward for the university, which had placed 109th on the 2016 list.
“CQUniversity is a university like no other and in recent years we have placed a strong strategic focus on growing our engagement and research agendas and involving our communities and industries in everything we do,” Professor Bowman said.
“We have invested heavily in improving all of our offerings and because of this we have been able to continuously improve our reputation, not just locally but on an international scale.”
CQUniversity has also been named as a leading university by the international QS World Rankings system, and was recently recognised as Australia’s first Changemaker Campus by Ashoka U, an exclusive global social innovation group made up of only 37 higher education institutes across the world.
The full list of THE Young University Rankings can be found here.