Excellence in Research Australia (ERA)

• ERA 2012 Outcomes
  
• ERA Background

Outstanding ERA 2012 Outcomes 

ERA gauges research quality at Australian universities. 

The excellence and depth of the University of Western Sydney’s research has been recognised in the latest national report card, with over 70 per cent of the University’s research assessed as world class or better.

Three of our areas of specialisation – plant biology, forestry sciences, and complementary medicine – have been assessed as "characterised by evidence of outstanding performance well above world standard" and have received the highest possible rating of '5'.

This achievement is manifested in the research activity of the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment and the Centre for Complementary Medicine.

In complementary medicine, the ERA report found that UWS is a true global leader, and indeed, is the only Australian university to have sufficient quality research in the area of complementary medicine to be assessed. 

Other UWS research in the top-tiers and awarded a rating of '4' - “above world standard” includes: applied mathematics, macromolecular and materials chemistry, soil sciences, ecology, mechanical engineering, performing arts and creative writing, cultural studies, and literary studies.

UWS has shown impressive improvement in its research performance since the last ERA evaluation carried out in 2010.

The number of ratings at or above world standard has more than doubled since the last report. On this measure, the University is now in the top 20 (18th) of 41 Australian universities evaluated through ERA.

The 2012 ERA outcomes continue to affirm the efficacy of UWS’s strategy of investing in areas of strength and emerging strength.   Rated ‘above world standard’ (‘ 4’) are the UWS specialisations:

• Applied Mathematics 
• Performing Arts and Creative Writing, and Literary Studies - both of these reflecting the University’s strength in music and literature as manifested in the research activity of the Writing and Society Research Group and the School of Humanities and Communication Arts.
• Mechanical Engineering - which forms a large part of the research activity of the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics and to some extent the Institute for Infrastructure Engineering.
• Cultural Studies – which reflects the research activity of the Institute for Culture and Society and the research activity in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts.
• Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry – which reflects the research activity in the School of Science and Health, in particular, the Solar Energy Technologies Group and the Nanoscale Organisation and Dynamics Group

ERA 2012 confirms UWS’s standing as a research leader in Australia. This is on top of recent results in Australian Research Council major grant awards, positioning UWS 11th of 39 universities in both dollar funding and number of grants.

UWS ERA Outcomes

The full list of results for UWS (opens in a new window) is available from the ARC website.

ERA 2012 National Report

The full ERA 2012 National Report (opens in a new window) is available from the ARC website.

Rating Scale

Each 2 and 4-digit FoR code (where the minimum threshold was met) received a score out of five. The scores for the 2-digit codes were not simply an average of the 4-digit scores, they were evaluated separately.

In order to achieve a rating at a particular point on the scale, the majority of the output from a unit of evaluation will normally be expected to meet the standard for that rating point. The term 'world standard' used throughout the scale refers to a quality standard. It does not refer to the nature or geographical scope of particular disciplines, or to the locus of research nor its place of dissemination.

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