The prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings also places JCU equal 10^th of the 31 Australian universities selected for the list.

JCU Vice Chancellor, Professor Sandra Harding said the results reflect the University’s status as a highly competitive, research-intensive university.

“Despite our size, JCU continues to deliver ground-breaking research, and we perform very strongly when compared to the world’s largest, most successful universities.”

The International Handbook of Universities (UNESCO) estimates there are more than 18,000 institutions around the world.

JCU has been rated particularly strongly in terms of the global impact of its research, which is highly recognised. The university is ranked 149^th of all universities for its “citation impact”.

It has also highly ranked for its “international outlook”, reflecting its share of international staff and co-authorship of significant scientific papers (ranked 173^rd).

“For a regional university, JCU continues to demonstrate that its horizons are impressively global,” Professor Harding said.

Phil Baty, the editor of the THE World University Rankings, said the organisation applies rigorous standards and tough global benchmarks to rank universities in terms of their teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

“The results are trusted by students and their families, academics, university leaders and governments. For JCU to make 251-300 in the world is an outstanding achievement to be celebrated.”

The Times is one of the two best known global rankings, along with the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).

For the sixth year in a row, ARWU recently ranked JCU in the 301-400 group of universities.