The Good Universities Guide is Australia's most trusted resource on higher education. For over 20 years, it’s been a point of reference for students wanting to make well-informed choices when it comes to the right course, the right provider and ultimately the right career for them.    

The 2022 edition of their independent five-star performance ratings are now live! These ratings provide a series of rankings and insights across a range of 13 indicators, which are grouped into three broad categories: Characteristics, The Student Experience and Graduate Outcomes. In the tables below, we’ve listed the university that ranked highest in each rating category for undergraduate courses.

The pandemic has been tough on students and universities alike. International enrolments came to a standstill, and domestic student life has been severely disrupted. Despite the challenges presented by Covid-19, on average universities have maintained overwhelmingly high standards of student experience.

A combination of resources provided by the Department of Education, Skills & Employment are used to create these ratings, as well as graduate and student experience surveys in Australia.

These ratings should be used as an overview only, and further careful research should be undertaken before choosing a course and campus. Courses and institutions differ in many ways — only the student can decide which differences really matter to them.

The top universities for undergraduate study in 2022

Characteristics

Rating Type	Definition	Top university (undergraduate)
Social Equity	The proportion of domestic students enrolling at each university from low socioeconomic or disadvantaged backgrounds	CQ University Australia – 39%
Staff Qualification	The proportion of staff who hold a masters or doctoral degree	University of Wollongong — 88%
Student Demand	Where high-achieving students choose to study — compares the proportion of commencing students with high ATAR scores at each university	Melbourne University – Low: 0 Medium: 0.45 High: 0.55
Student – Teacher Ratio	The number of students per teaching staff member	Bond University – 9:1
First Generation	The proportion of domestic students commencing a bachelor degree whose parents’ education is known and did not exceed Year 12	Federation University — 55%

The Student Experience

For each category in this section, the percentage of students who were satisfied with the university’s performance in the area is noted. For example, if a university achieves 75% for Teaching Quality, this indicates that 75% of students at the university were satisfied with the quality of teaching they experienced.

Rating Type	Definition	Top university (undergraduate)
Learner Engagement	The proportion of students who felt they were engaged with learning in their institution	Bond University — 80.8%
Learning Resources	The proportion of students who were satisfied with the learning resources provided by their institution	Bond University — 93.4%
Overall Experience	The proportion of students who were satisfied with the overall quality of their educational experience	Bond University — 85.8%
Skills Development	The proportion of students who were satisfied with the skill development they experienced through their studies	Bond University — 91%
Student Support	The proportion of students who were satisfied with the support they received from their institution	Bond University — 90.7%
Teaching Quality	The proportion of students who were satisfied with the quality of teaching they experienced	Bond University— 90.8%

Graduate Outcomes

Rating Type	Definition	Top university (undergraduate)
Graduate Salary	The median salary of graduates from different universities	University of Southern Queensland (USQ) — $70,000
Full-time Employment	The employment rates of graduates from different universities	Charles Sturt University — 86.3%