Canterbury in top one percent in civil engineering

Canterbury in top one percent in the world in civil and structural engineering

April 29, 2015

The University of Canterbury is ranked in the top one percent in the world in civil and structural engineering in the latest QS world university rankings by subject released today.

The latest rating by the independent London-based university ranking company puts the University of Canterbury 44th in the world.

The university’s Civil and Natural Resources Engineering department has a long tradition of research into innovative solutions for many hazards facing society today, driven in part by the particular needs of living in New Zealand. The department is especially well regarded internationally for its research into seismic engineering.

Professors Andy Buchanan and Stefano Pampanin and Associate Professor Alessandro Palermo have developed a completely new system of earthquake-resistant buildings using post-tensioned structural timber. They have simulated some of the world's shakiest earthquakes in a ground-breaking quest to design fully quake-proof buildings.

Canterbury is also ranked among the world’s elite 100 universities in the world in art and design, accounting and finance and law. Overall Canterbury is ranked among the top 200 universities in the world in 21 subjects.

Linguistics, in the top 15 universities, economics and sociology, in the top 200, and chemistry, in the top 250, made the greatest improvements at Canterbury in the last year, according to QS.

In its report, QS says UC enjoys an international reputation as a university that has a distinguished heritage, embraces and extols traditional values of academic excellence and takes singular pride in its strong research culture.

``The University has an impressive profile in research, learning and advanced scholarship as is evidenced by its strong performance in recent performance-based research fund exercises. This fuels the University's resolve to continue with strong contributions to fundamental and applied research, with well-regarded postgraduate and research programmes and with strong research and collaborative links with other leading tertiary institutions and research organisations, nationally and internationally.

``The University of Canterbury's overarching goal is to be among the top two universities in New Zealand over the long-term, reach standards equivalent to comparable Australian universities in research, teaching and learning and secure and maintain a ranking in the top 150 universities worldwide.’’

Overall, Canterbury is ranked among the top three percent of universities in the world and is the first New Zealand university to gain a five star QS rating.

For further information contact the University of Canterbury Media Consultant Kip Brook on 0275030168

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