The University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia has been ranked as a top university in the world in the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012-2013. UNSW came in at number 85 in the 2012-2013 rankings, cementing its position as a world class university.

Australian universities improved their position overall in the latest rankings, with six institutions appearing in the top 100, up from four last year.

Phil Baty, editor of the rankings report, said Australia's strong performance was part of a wider trend showing that institutions in the Asia-Pacific are gaining ground on the US and Britain.

''Australia is really starting to benefit from the power shift from the West to the East in higher education - it has great advantages being close to the exciting innovation and research hotspots in Asia,'' he said.

''If it can fully exploit the geographical advantage it has over Europe and North America, there's every reason to believe it can be part of a real higher education revolution in Asia-Pacific.''

Of the eight Australian universities in the top 200, six improved their positions. A new measure which tracks the average movement of the top 200 institutions in each country shows that Australia had the third-biggest ranking improvement in the world, with its top 200 institutions rising an average of 15 places.

The rankings are based on 13 performance indicators, and Mr Baty said the improvement in Australian institutions was due to better scores for research efforts.

''It looks to me as if all the universities which are rising up in Australia have seen considerable improvements to their research quality,'' he said. ''Your Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative has perhaps focused Australian universities on the importance of research as a driver of competition.''

About the University of New South Wales

The University of New South Wales is located in Sydney, Australia. UNSW is renowned globally for its teaching and cutting edge research and is recognised as one of the top four universities in the 2010 Excellence in Research in Australia report.

With a student community of over 52,000 high achieving students, including more than 12,000 international students from more than 120 around the world, UNSW is shaping the minds of the future.

For further information about the University of New South Wales contact: T. +61 2 9385 6996 E. internationaloffice@unsw.edu.au W. www.international.unsw.edu.au