UNSW has been judged one of the top three universities in Australia for the quality of its learning and teaching, and assessed as number one in Australia for its teaching performance in business and law.

The Federal Government's Learning and Teaching Performance Fund for 2008 shows UNSW outranking all other GO8* universities. It will receive a total of $9.5 million from the Fund, the second largest allocation to any Australian university.

The Learning and Teaching Fund rewards universities that demonstrate excellence in teaching and learning for domestic undergraduates.

For the purposes of the Fund, universities have been awarded scores in each of four discipline groups. UNSW achieved a top A1 ranking in three out of four of the groups: Business, law and economics; Science, computing, engineering, architecture and agriculture; and Humanities, arts and education. It was the top performer among the six universities in the Business/Law cluster.

The University also did well in the fourth discipline group, Health, with an A2 rating.

The assessment is based on graduate surveys measuring levels of satisfaction and employability or progress to further study, and Department of Education, Science and Training data on retention and progression rates.

Twenty three universities were successful in gaining allocations under the 2008 Fund, sharing a total of $83 million.

"This is an outstanding result for UNSW", Vice-Chancellor Professor Fred Hilmer said today.

"We are focused on achieving excellence in both research and teaching. These results clearly show that a research intensive university such as UNSW can also achieve the highest standards in terms of the learning experience we provide to our students."

Media Contact: Judy Brookman, UNSW Media Unit, ph 9385 3249, mob 0421 061 251, j.brookman@unsw.edu.au

*UNSW is a member of the Group of Eight, which represents Australia's top research intensive universities.