Otago University is recruiting students based on a false claim on the front page of its advertising & Website that it is in the "top 1%" of universities world-wide. It is not. Today it fell another eight places down to 214th place in the world, according to the QS rankings, upon which Otago says it bases its claims. That rank is down from number 133 in 2012.
When Labour had just come to power in 2018, Otago was ranked at 151. Since then, the Ardern-Robertson-Hipkins-lets-stuff-up-education-effect saw it plummet 63 places, down to where it now sits at 214th place. There are 1,503 universities in these rankings, so Otago is lucky to be in the top 15%. The University is 15 times out in its claims.
The National University of Singapore is ranked at 8th place in the world - and Melbourne University in Australia is ranked 13th. New Zealand should have a university of comparable standing. When our universities feel to the need to say they are ranked equally with the National University of Singapore and Melbourne - that is, in the top 1% - when they are not - it is time to wonder whether truth has gone out the window in NZ.
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