The University of Adelaide (Adelaide Uni)

Australia

The University of Adelaide is a world-class research and teaching institution situated in the heart of one of the world’s most liveable cities. Founded in 1874, we are Australia’s third oldest university, South Australia’s clear research leader, and consistently rank inside the world’s top 140.

Our reputation for breaking new ground has been forged by a continuous stream of exceptional people. We count among our alumni five Nobel Laureates, over 140 Fulbright Scholars and more than 100 Rhodes Scholars, including Australia’s first female Indigenous recipient. The country’s first female prime minister and Supreme Court judge were also University of Adelaide graduates.

We currently have 12 Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers (2019), and, since 2001 our academics have received 11 coveted Australian Research Council Federation and Laureate Fellowships.

Today, our high-achieving culture continues to attract the world’s best and brightest- discipline leaders from around the globe and close to 8,000 international students from more than 90 countries, representing around 29% of our near-27,000 total student body.

Research impact

The University of Adelaide is committed to conducting future-making research with global impact. A member of Australia’s prestigious Group of Eight (Go8) research-intensive universities, we address the world’s greatest challenges.

Our researchers work closely across multiple disciplines and in productive partnership with industry, government and leading institutions around the globe.

The resulting outputs are universally rated ‘world standard or above’ by the Australian Government’s Excellence in Research for Australia assessment (2018). This includes the highest possible rating in 41 distinct fields, spanning engineering, mathematics, science, medical and health sciences, agriculture and artificial intelligence.

Importantly, our work generates tangible community benefit. A London Economics report commissioned by the Go8 in 2018 valued our total contribution to South Australia’s economy at over AUS$4.23 billion.

* 2018 Times Higher Education world university rankings and the QS rankings

1 July 2019 - 30 June 2020

Region: Global
Subject/journal group: All

The table to the right includes counts of all research outputs for The University of Adelaide (Adelaide Uni) published between 1 July 2019 - 30 June 2020 which are tracked by the Nature Index.

Hover over the donut graph to view the FC output for each subject. Below, the same research outputs are grouped by subject. Click on the subject to drill-down into a list of articles organized by journal, and then by title.

Note: Articles may be assigned to more than one subject area.

Count	Share
229	38.73

Outputs by subject (Share)

Subject	Count	Share
Life Sciences	71	9.83
Physical Sciences	94	7.12
Chemistry	45	19.10
Earth & Environmental Sciences	39	7.33

Highlight of the month

Climate change killed the giant kangaroo

Humans may not be entirely to blame for the disappearance of Australia’s biggest prehistoric beasts.

Previous explanations for megafauna mass extinctions in Australia and New Guinea nearly 42,000 years ago have been based on sparse archaeological records.

A team that included researchers from the University of Adelaide analysed an array of fossils uncovered at South Walker Creek in northeastern Australia. They identified at least 16 megafaunas species, from giant monitor lizards to the world’s biggest kangaroo, which only began to vanish around 40,000 years ago. According to plant fossils and charcoal particles from the region, this disappearance coincided with a drying climate, a reduction of grassland, and more intense forest fires.

The range of species is more diverse than at southern Australian sites of a similar age, contradicting theories that humans hunted these animals to extinction while migrating north to south. Extinctions around this time may therefore require more complex, environmental explanations.

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