Most of New Zealand’s universities have continue to slide further down a major international league table after again failing to be placed in the world’s top 50 universities.
The QS World University Rankings 2010/2011 have just been published. No New Zealand university made it to the top 50 and only one was placed in the top 100.
The University of Cambridge topped this year’s list. United States colleges dominated the top 50 with 21 entries, the UK 8, Australia 5; Japan Canada and Hong Kong each had 3.
New Zealand was beaten out of the top 50 by another four countries also in the region- S.Korea, Hong Kong, China and Singapore, all of whom had one university listed.
The only New Zealand university to improve was Victoria University of Wellington, which moved up 4 places to 225.
New Zealand’s rankings in the top 500 in 2010 (previous year in brackets)
University of Auckland 68 (61)
University of Otgao 135 (125)
University of Canterbury 189 (188)
Victoria University of Wellington 225 (229)
Massey University 302 (299)
University of Waikato 316 (314)
Auckland University of Technology was not placed in the overall rankings
For our facts and stats page about education in New Zealand click here
Other NZ education related stories in the news today
Legal high lure for visiting students
“Legal highs sold over the counter are becoming increasingly popular among international high school students keen to party while away from home.
Sixteen-year-old Brazilian student Monica said the drug scene in New Zealand had been recommended to her before she arrived.
“It is no surprise that students smoke. When you Google images of New Zealand in Brazil, you find only pictures of marijuana,” she told education newspaper Eduvac.
“I prefer Kronic, though. It is good because it’s legal and you can buy it whenever you want…” more here
Row rages over school abortion
“A teenage girl’s decision to have her school organise an abortion for her without letting her parents know has sparked sharp debate between pro-choice and pro-life groups…” more here
Schoolboy signed his life away
A student who drowned on a school geography trip forged his permission slip after his mother refused to allow him to go due to safety concerns.
Edward Magalogo, 18, was swept out to sea by a freak wave at Muriwai Beach during a field trip with Tangaroa College in March last year…more here
E2NZ.org 
With some of the highest tuition in the world!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10752019
They should try harder to stop drinking. Southland times, 11/7:
“Hundreds of young children are being admitted to hospital for drug and alcohol overdoses every year, with some as young as seven arriving at hospital drunk on wine.
Documents obtained under the Official Information Act from 13 district health boards around New Zealand paint a shocking picture of very young children having to be treated in hospital for the effects of drugs and alcohol.”
Many of these are accidental poisonings from medicine or household products, alongside preventable cases in which life-threatening amounts of illegal drugs and alcohol have been taken by – or given to – young children and teenagers.
They include a 10-month-old baby who arrived unconscious at Palmerston North Hospital and whose urine was found to contain traces of P and cannabis, several cases of toddlers treated for cannabis overdoses at Whangarei Hospital, and extremely intoxicated pre-teens – as young as seven – arriving at hospitals nationwide.
Auckland Community Alcohol and Drug Service youth addiction psychiatrist Grant Christie, who treats alcohol-dependent teens aged 13 to 18, said drunk and drugged young people ending up in hospital were just “the tip of the iceberg”.
About 500 teens were referred to the service last year, and he was seeing more – and younger – each year.
“Most young people with severe problems don’t end up being hospitalised and only a few actually get the treatment they need.
“The levels of some young people’s use is quite staggering: many would see buying a box [24 cans] of beer – or a bottle of spirits, or a cask of wine – to drink over the course of an evening as pretty standard.”
The drug and drink problem is very serious here. Combined with the driving – let’s say we do not travel the roads at night unless we absolutely must! All the migrants I speak to mention this. Drugs are a shrug here. They do not have the funds to tackle the immensity of usage and have given up the larger-scale war in favour of cheap traffic screening and informant-based highly publicised stings.