The Ratings Explained
There is a vast array of ratings within the Good Universities Guides, all reproduced on this website. The purpose of the ratings is to provide insights into various aspects of higher education providers and how they compare. These ratings are split into four ratings gateways and can be split into four groups.
The first group provide indications of the character and background of an institution. These are split into a number of sub areas: Key ratings; Access and Equity; Who's there, The experience and graduate outcomes. Use Gateway 2 to see how all institutions compare with each other. To find out the details for a single institution, use Gateway 1.
The second group of ratings look at the fields of study. We have grouped all undergraduate and postgraduate courses offered in Australia, currently around 10,000, into 30 fields of study. Remember that it is quite usual for a university to offer a number of courses within a field of study and even a number of courses within a field of study at different campuses. Ratings are provided at a national level and will help answer questions like: what are the employment or salary prospects, how tough is it to get into these courses, what does it cost? How many campuses offer courses in a particular field. Use Gateway 4 to see how all the fields of study compare with each other.
Gateway 3 allows you to drill down into the details of a particular field. Answers are found to question like; what specialisations or majors are included within a given field, who's there, how difficult is entry, what will it cost.
The third group looks at the individual courses. You can get there easily by delving further into your chosen field of study. There you can find particular courses offered by various institutions and find course details like how difficult or easy entry is and much, much more.
The last group of ratings look at various aspects of each of an institution's campuses. What services and support do they offer?, how expensive is it to live around the campus, how easy or difficult is it to gain entry into the courses offered there.
In all cases, we try to provide useful and relevant information so you can decide Which Campus? and Which Course? is right for you. But remember rankings and ratings are indicators only. They help but do not present a full picture. Research your choices carefully! Good luck!
The Key ratings appear as Star ratings.
The Non-government earnings rating
Indicates the revenue generated outside normal government grants by the institution from sources such as private research grants and contracts, donations and bequests, investment activities, and fees paid by international and domestic students.
Source: Based on information from the Department of Education, Science and Training, Selected Higher Education Statistics, Finance Collection, 2005, published in 2007.
The Research grants rating
Looks at an institution's success in attracting research grants from various sources.
Source: Based on the Institutional Grants Scheme allocation for 2006 as calculated by the Department of Education, Science and Training; and Linkage-projects scheme (Round 2 for 2006 and Round 1 for 2007) and Discovery-projects scheme, from the Australian Research Council, 2006-2010.) Note that due to changes in DEST reporting and release of data, 2007 IGS allocation have not been released to AVCC or ourselves.
The Research intensivity rating
Looks at an institution's success in attracting research grants on a per capita basis.
Source: Based on the per capita (FTE of research academic staff) Institutional Grants Scheme allocation for 2006 as calculated by the Department of Education, Science and Training; and the per capita (FTE of research academic staff) Linkage-projects scheme funding (Round 2 for 2006 and Round 1 for 2007) and the per capita (FTE of research academic staff) Discovery-projects scheme funding, from the Australian Research Council, 2006-2010. The FTE of research academic staff is based on information provided in 2006 by the Department of Education, Science and Training, with respect to the 2005 Staff statistics collection.)
The Toughness to get in rating
Looks at the comparative toughness to gain entry via a cut-off score to each campus. As some universities have more high-demand courses than others, comparisons are made 'within field' and are based on the average score for entry into courses in each field.
Source: Scores are for 2007 courses as published by tertiary admissions centres and converted to a national 100-point scale provided by the Tertiary Institutions Services Centre of WA.
The Entry flexibility rating
Looks at the flexibility of entry into an institution as determined by the number of entrants who commence a course on a basis other than by transferring between courses or direct school entry.
Source: Based on data for 2005 enrolments as published by the Department of Education, Science and Training in 2006.
The Gender balance rating
Looks at the balance of male and female undergraduate students in six selected fields of study at an institution. Institutions who have result in less than half of these fields are excluded.
Source: Based on a 'within field' analysis of 2005 undergraduate enrolments in agriculture, architecture, business, computing and IT, engineering, and science, as provided by the Department of Education, Science and Training.
The Indigenous participation rating
Looks at the proportion of students of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island descent at an institution. For this rating both undergraduate and postgraduate enrolments are included.
Source: Based on information published by the Department of Education, Science and Training, 2006, with respect to 2005 enrolments.
The Proportion of entrants who are school leavers rating
Looks at the proportion of students who commenced their undergraduate courses directly from school.
Source: Based on data for 2005 enrolments as published by the Department of Education, Science and Training in 2006.
The Educational experience: graduate rating
Looks at how graduates rated their courses (for overall satisfaction, teaching quality, and acquisition of generic skills).
Source: Based on the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) survey of all 2004 and 2005 graduates conducted by the Graduate Careers Australia (GCA in 2005 and 2206).
The Student-staff ratio rating
Looks at the ratio of students to staff. In line with institutional consensus, we include only onshore student load.
Source: The AVCC's 2005 analysis of student-staff ratios in relation to 2004 data. The Student load and Staff FTE data are extracted from DEST 2004 Final Student and Staff Publications respectively.
The Staff qualifications rating
Looks at the highest level of qualifications of teaching staff at an institution.
Source: Based on the FTE of full-time and fractional full-time academic staff published by the Department of Education, Science and Training, 2005. Institutions with 20 or greater per cent of no information are excluded.
The Cultural diversity rating
Looks at the proportion of students from a Non-English Speaking Background (NESB) who study at an Australian campus.
Source: Based on 2005 enrolment figures as provided by the Department of Education, Science and Training in 2006. It includes only those students who undertake all or part of their study on-campus and in Australia.
The Access by Equity Group rating
Looks at the proportion of domestic commencing students from each of the six target groups (Rural, Isolated, women in traditional areas, low socio-economic background, Indigenous background and Non-English Speaking Background (NESB).
Source: Based on 2005 enrolment figures as provided by the Department of Education, Science and Training in 2006. It includes only those students who undertake all or part of their study on-campus and in Australia.
The Graduate starting salary rating
Looks at the average (mean) starting salaries for new domestic graduates aged 25 and under in their first job. Salaries lower than $18,000 or greater than $100,000 have been excluded.
Source: Based on the Graduate Destinations Survey (GDS) of 2004 and 2005 graduates conducted by the Graduate Careers Australia (GCA) in 2005 and 2006.
The Getting a job rating
Looks at the proportion of all job-seeking graduates who were successful in obtaining full-time employment within four months of graduation . Students who go onto further study are excluded as they are not considered to be part of the job market.
Source: Based on the Graduate Destinations Survey (GDS) of 2004 and 2005 graduates conducted by the Graduate Careers Australia (GCA) in 2005 and 2006.
The Positive graduate outcomes rating
Looks at the proportion of all graduates who are successful in getting a job or enrolling in further study.
Source: Based on the Graduate Destinations Survey (GDS) of 2004 and 2005 graduates conducted by the Graduate Careers Australia (GCA) in 2005 and 2006.
All ratings which look at the number and composition of the student body at both the institution and field of study level source information from the Department of Education, Science and Training and from the individual institutions. Cut-off scores are sourced from the public record and are derived from the tertiary admissions centres in each state and territory. Where applicable they are converted to a national 100 point scale provided by the Tertiaty Institutions Services Centre in Western Australia. Data is the most up-to-date available.
For the Toughness of Entry leagues, these are constructed on the average score required by a domestic CSP or full-fee paying student, to enter courses in a particular field of study at a particular campus. In many cases there are often more than one course available in a field of study at a campus. For example, to enter a psychology course, a university may allow entry into a bachelor of psychology degree, or through a bachelor of science or a bachelor of arts. Our entry for psychology at this university will be the average of all three entry scores. The three individual scores are also available on this website.
Most of the other information, ie course fees, services available on each campus, is provided by the individual institutions.
