Australian Catholic University has done it again, and then some. In the 2026 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, ACU has been named number one in Australia for research quality for the third consecutive year and climbed to number 17 globally on the same metric, up from 24th last year. In a field of more than 2,000 universities from 115 countries, this is a remarkable achievement that speaks to sustained excellence, disciplined strategy, and a campus-wide commitment to impact.
I have a personal reason to celebrate. As someone who served as National Manager at ACU, I’ve seen first-hand the dedication, grit, and collaborative spirit that animates this community. Day in, day out, academics, professional staff, students, and partners show up to do the quiet, demanding work that great research requires. To all the wonderful people at ACU, my sincere congratulations. You’ve earned this moment.
Why This Win Matters: Research Quality as a North Star
Times Higher Education compiles its rankings from a carefully weighted blend of indicators spanning research environment, teaching, international outlook, industry engagement, and research quality. Of these, research quality is the sharpest lens on how knowledge travels and transforms, capturing citation influence, research strength, and the extent to which scholarship shifts thinking across disciplines and borders. For ACU to lead Australia on this dimension three years running, and to break into the top 20 worldwide, confirms not a one-off surge but a culture and system that consistently produces world-class work.
The global rise from 24th to 17th in research quality signals momentum. It suggests ACU’s scholarly output is attracting more citations, influencing practice, and resonating with peers internationally. For a university smaller than some sandstone counterparts, that trajectory underscores the power of focus: build critical mass around areas of strength, cultivate international collaborations, reward translational impact, and support early- and mid-career researchers to flourish.
A Community Effort: What the Ranking Recognises
ACU’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise), Professor Abid Khan, framed the result exactly where it belongs: with people. He pointed to staff, students, and national and international collaborators as the heartbeat behind the ranking, highlighting the real-world impact of research that changes lives and strengthens communities. That sentiment tracks with ACU’s identity. Whether in health sciences, education, allied health, or the broader humanities and social sciences, ACU’s research has always been at its best when it is shoulder-to-shoulder with the people it serves, clinicians, teachers, carers, policymakers, and communities on the frontlines.
This recognition also dovetails with ACU’s strong presence in independent researcher listings, where dozens of academics have been acknowledged among the world’s top performers. When a university’s people feature prominently in global researcher rankings, and its papers carry influence well beyond their immediate circles, it shows an ecosystem that nurtures excellence from proposal to publication to practice.
Beyond the Brand: How ACU Built a Research Engine
Rankings don’t improve on aspiration alone; they shift when systems do. Over recent years, ACU has sharpened its research focus through a set of mutually reinforcing choices:
First, targeted investment in priority fields where the university has proven differentiation, especially in health and education, has created depth rather than breadth. By backing flagship institutes and centres, recruiting strategically, and supporting multi-year programs, ACU has created teams capable of tackling complex questions with scale and sophistication.
Second, an emphasis on collaboration and co-authorship has widened ACU’s research footprint. International partnerships deepen methodology, broaden datasets, and increase the chances that findings travel widely. That network effect matters in research quality metrics, where citation performance and cross-disciplinary influence carry significant weight.
Third, a disciplined approach to translation, turning research into policy influence, clinical protocols, classroom practice, and community programs, has amplified impact. When research changes systems, it gets noticed, cited, and used. ACU’s alignment with partners in health services, schools, community organisations, and government has made that translation tangible.
Finally, researcher development has been more than a slogan. From grant-craft and methodological support to mentorship and career pathways, ACU has invested in the pipeline. When early-career scholars are scaffolded to publish well and often, when mid-career academics are supported to lead consortia and translate findings, and when senior scholars are empowered to set ambitious agendas, the research quality curve bends upward.
What This Means for Students, Partners, and Australia
For students, undergraduate, postgraduate, and HDR, the signal is clear: you are learning and training in an institution whose research is not just prolific but influential. That translates to supervision by leaders in their fields, learning informed by current evidence, and opportunities to contribute to projects with national and international visibility.
For partners in health, education, social services, and industry, ACU’s research quality win is a reliability marker. It says the evidence base you rely on is globally recognised, and the people you collaborate with are connected to the forefront of knowledge in their disciplines. That makes joint projects more ambitious, policy advice more persuasive, and innovation pipelines more robust.
For Australia’s research system, ACU’s sustained performance expands the map of excellence. It shows that world-leading research quality does not belong only to the oldest or largest institutions. It can, and should, be built wherever there is focus, infrastructure, and a mission that prioritises impact. In an era where the nation’s well-being hinges on better health outcomes, effective teaching and learning, and evidence-driven policy, ACU’s contribution lands where it matters most.
A Personal Note: Pride in People and Purpose
Having worked alongside ACU’s teams, I know the calibre of the people behind these results. I’ve seen the late nights spent on grant revisions, the careful design of ethically sound studies, the painstaking work of data cleaning and analysis, the push to publish in the right journals for maximum reach, and the humility to partner with communities rather than research on them. Those choices don’t trend on social media, but they are exactly why research quality climbs.
To everyone at ACU, academic and professional staff, students, research fellows, and collaborators, thank you. You prove that excellence and empathy are not trade-offs. You show that research can be both rigorous and humane, both global in reputation and local in service.
The Road Ahead: Consolidate, Grow, and Keep the Mission Central
Rankings are lagging indicators; they tell the story of work done well over the years. The opportunity now is to consolidate and build. That means doubling down on strengths while exploring adjacent areas where ACU’s mission can drive fresh impact. It means protecting the conditions that allow researchers to do their best work, time, mentorship, infrastructure, and partnerships. It means staying open to new methods, including responsible use of AI and data science, where they can accelerate discovery without sacrificing ethics. And it means continuing to measure success not only in citations and scores, but in outcomes for the people ACU exists to serve.
ACU’s research quality hat-trick is about more than prestige. It is a signal that a mission-driven university, with the right focus, culture, and partnerships, can shape global scholarship and local outcomes at once. As a former National Manager at ACU, I could not be prouder to see that promise realised. Congratulations to every person who made it possible. Keep pushing boundaries. Keep transforming lives and communities. And keep showing Australia, and the world, what research quality looks like when purpose leads the way.
