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International standing of Australian universities

Ross Williams and Nina Van Dyke Melbourne Institute

The world's finest universities have always been international in outlook, attracting academics and students from many countries. Globalization has meant an increased demand from students, employers, and academics for indicators of the international standing of universities.

Decisions about where to study, whom to employ, or where to seek professional expertise should be based on quantitative and qualitative information but it is often difficult for the decision maker to obtain this information directly. In this paper we meet this need by providing information on the international standing of 39 Australian universities.

We assume that there is a 'brand effect' for the university as a whole, while acknowledging that there are discipline effects as well: the ranking of a given discipline across universities may differ from the ranking of institutions as single entities.

We postulate, however, that the variability in the quality of departments within an institution is falling as a result of the growth in interdisciplinary research and quality controls on departments and universities. Bad departments in good universities are becoming rarer.

Australia is a major contributor to world higher education. The OECD estimates that in 2002 around 1.90 million students were studying at the tertiary level outside their country of origin and Australia had the highest proportion of foreign students of any country.

In absolute terms Australia ranked fourth behind only the United States, U.K. and Germany.

Within Australia there has been much discussion about the international standing of its universities. The discussion is often related back to funding issues.

Is it possible under current funding arrangements for Australian universities to be high up in the international league tables? Are any Australian universities in the top 50 or top 100 in the world?

One answer to the last question has been provided by work done in the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rankinh.htm). In the 2004 Shanghai study two Australian universities, ANU and Melbourne, were ranked in the range 50-100. Fourteen Australian universities were listed among the top 500 world universities.

We approach the measurement of international standing from two directions. In one approach we survey CEOs of some of the world's best universities and deans of Australian universities for their perceptions of the international standing of Australian universities.

The survey results provide us with a broad subjective measure of international standing; it is primarily a reputation measure. In the other approach we use published data which we combine into an index of current performance. The two approaches are linked in that we also asked those surveyed to provide us with the weights to combine the quantitative measures into a single index.

Measurement of standing is done both in absolute terms (where Australian universities stand vis a vis the world's best universities) and in relative terms within Australia.

Determinants of international standing

In the Shanghai study the international ranking of a university is determined by research performance and its importance as judged by citations. We extend this approach by adding a range of other measures of performance and by allowing for the discipline mix in institutions between laboratory-based disciplines and non-laboratory based. Attributes are grouped under the following six headings:

* Quality/International standing of academic staff as measured by research output, citations, membership of learned academies, and success in obtaining research grants.

* Quality of graduate programs, particularly Ph.D. programs, as measured by student surveys, progression rates and successful completions.

* Quality of undergraduate entry as measured by Tertiary Entrance Scores.

* Quality of undergraduate programs as measured by progression rates within the degree and to higher studies, student evaluations, and staff-student ratios.

* Resources as measured by total revenue deflated by size of institution.

* Subjective assessment as obtained through a survey of educationists.

http://www.melbourneinstitute.com/publications/reports/aus_uni/ExecSumm.pdf www.australian-universities.com/rankings/

Vallibel Finance goes to Kandy

Vallibel Finance has opened a branch in Kandy, at D. S. Senanayake Road, Kandy.

As part of its development plans for the post-war recovery period, Vallibel Finance has embarked on a campaign to expand its branch network.

"We are planning to open several more branches during the course of this year, building on our recent successes first in Maharagama then more recently in Minuwangoda," said Vallibel Finance Managing Director Jayantha Rangamuwa. "We are planning to open in the north-west and the south soon as well, he said.

Hemas, Rotary donate dental unit

Hemas Pharmaceuticals (Pvt) Ltd., with the Rotary Club of Colombo Fort recently donated a dental unit to President's College, Embilipitiya, formerly known as Embilipitiya Central College. The new unit will be of great use to the public since this area is known to have many dental hygiene problems due to the high fluoride content in the water.

The new dental unit will benefit the school population of 5000 children, their parents, teachers and the neighbouring schools. A doctor and a nurse have been appointed to the unit by the Ratnapura Regional Heath Director. Their services will be available to the general public once every two weeks.

Hemas Pharmaceuticals Managing Director Sanjeewa Samaranayake said that being one of the largest pharmaceuticals distribution companies in Sri Lanka, and a key stakeholder in the national healthcare of the country, Hemas is committed to enriching the lives of its customers and society at large. "Considering the oral health issues in the area due to high content of fluoride in the water, we were of the view that such a dental unit will be of immense benefit to the children and the general public of this area. We therefore embarked on a project of this nature under our corporate social responsibility program," he said.

The Colombo Fort Rotary Club former President Kapila Dayaratne said they were pleased to partner this venture as it was of great value to the people living in the area.

Building awareness about dental hygiene among the student population was a requirement in the country.

Nolimit recognized for customer service

Nolimit was ranked in the top 20 corporate entities recognized as the "Best of the Best" in customer service by a recent exclusive survey conducted by TNS Lanka Ltd for Living-life style magazine. Nolimit is the only fashion retail brand to have been recognized in this survey.

The exclusive island-wide poll was conducted to rate the "Best of the Best" in customer service in Sri Lankan service establishments. The poll covered males and females in rural and urban areas in 17 districts.

One of Sri Lanka's biggest fashion chains - Nolimit - has a team of over 1300 front line sales staff comprising both males and females across their 17 fashion stores spread island-wide. The front line staff at NOLIMIT undergo vigorous and thorough training on products, etiquette, selling techniques, how to delight a customer, empathy and rapport building which are of utmost importance in providing an efficient service to customers.

"We are firm believers that the customer is the king and that business cannot survive without customers. This is the very reason that we give a lot of emphasis and prominence to customer care and customer service. Our sales staff as well as our customer service officers in each and every fashion store are trained by experts in the field" said Nolimit Marketing Manager A.L.M. Akeel. "We have been investing in3 customer care programs continuously in the past and will continue to invest in the future as well in order to be the best in customer service" he said.

In addition to maintaining a well trained sales and customer care staff, Nolimit takes customer service a step further by offering value added services such as flexible exchange policies, alterations, loyalty programs such as "Arapaima" and attractive consumer promotions.

Living donor kidney transplants at Lanka Hospitals

More than fifty years ago, on December 23rd 1954, a kidney was transplanted from one healthy identical twin to his twin brother who was dying of renal disease. The operation was successful, renal function was restored, and the donor suffered no ill effects. This was the first successful transplantation, performed against a background of failure.

For this reason it created enormous excitement, both in the media and amongst medical professionals, at a time when the pioneers of kidney transplantation were despondent about the possibility of any real clinical application. Without question, since that momentous occasion in 1954, kidney transplantation has remained an enormously exciting field and can be considered one of the medical miracles of the 20th century.

From the standpoint of the patient in need of a transplant, there is almost universal agreement among transplant professionals that a living donor kidney transplant is the preferred course.

A living donor transplant is the transplantation of an organ - or part of an organ - from a living donor to a transplant recipient. And as the most common form of living donor transplant, more than one-third of all kidney transplant recipients now receive one of the two kidneys from a living donor.

Addressing advanced cases such as these, today, the Lanka Hospitals Kidney Care Centre offers comprehensive and specialised care for kidney disease and related problems which may lead to such transplants.

It provides dialysis and kidney transplants by the best and most respected nephrologists in the country.

The Centre is focused on performing more cadaveric and paediatric transplants. According to Lanka Hospitals Medical Services Director Dr Wimal Karandagoda, The hospital has done up to date the highest number of transplants compared to any other private hospital in Sri Lanka since 2003.

"We also have a transplant coordinator, a doctor who coordinates between the nephrologists and the centre, between the ethical committee and the specialist doctors etc, to ensure the patient gets the best possible clinical outcome and personalised service."

The Lanka Hospitals Kidney Transplant Unit at the Kidney Care Centre has six different teams performing transplants regularly for both paediatric and adult kidney transplants.

This unit has the ability to carry out Laparoscopic Donor Nephrectomy, where kidneys from donors can be removed with the smallest of cuts. The hospital also has a separate transplant ICU, with dedicated doctors and nurses 24 hours a day, and has done the largest number of kidney transplants in the private sector to date.

The unit has the ability to carry out both live and cadaver transplants. According to Lanka Hospitals Consultant Resident Nephrologist Dr Sujith Somiah, it has a donor selection and ethical committee and strictly follows the Tissue Transplant Act of Sri Lanka.

He said that the Kidney Care Centre at Lanka hospitals has high focus on general nephrology dialysis and transplantation. Patients coming to Lanka hospitals Kidney Care Centre are treated 24 hours by the largest number of the best and the most respected nephrologists in the country who are both visiting and practicing nephrologists from here and abroad.