University of Auckland most innovative in new rankings

University of Auckland is New Zealand’s most innovative university in new rankings

The University of Auckland’s status as the most innovative university in New Zealand has been confirmed in the latest Reuters Top 75: Asia’s Most Innovative Universities rankings.

In the list, which identifies and ranks the educational institutions doing the most to advance science and invent new technologies, the University of Auckland was placed 32nd; no other New Zealand university was ranked in the top 75.

University of Auckland Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon says: “We are committed to innovation and educational initiatives that will drive the growth of new high-value businesses and strengthen our traditional industries.

“We have a very strong culture of encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship and this ranking is a fantastic achievement for the University and our researchers.”

Through UniServices, its commercialisation company, the University already has a high level of connectivity between its researchers and businesses, both nationally and internationally. UniServices has, on behalf of the University, over 1,200 active projects with more than 300 New Zealand firms at any one time.

In 2016 UniServices generated revenues of $114 million, executed more than 50 licences for intellectual property and created more than 11 businesses to commercialise university research.

To compile its ranking of Asia’s most innovative universities, Reuters evaluated tertiary institutions on a number of metrics which included the number of basic and global patents filed by the universities, and the percentage of all articles that were written in collaboration with industry.

Five Australian universities were placed in the Reuters Top 75: Asia’s Most Innovative Universities rankings: Monash University (28); University of Sydney (31); University of Queensland (41); University of Melbourne (46); University of New South Wales (50).

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