A recent study has revealed New Zealand's eight universities all sit within the world's top 100 tertiary institutions in at least one subject.
The sixth edition of the QS World University Rankings by subject shows that New Zealand universities have taken out 21 top-50 places, bettering last year's result by one.
The University of Auckland was again the country's stand-out tertiary education provider, ranking inside the top 50 in 15 different subjects.
Other star performers were Otago University's School of Dentistry, which was rated 12th best of its kind on the globe, and Massey University's Veterinary Science programme, which impressed by taking 25th spot.
Universities New Zealand executive director Chris Whelan says the results are outstanding.
"The results show that our eight universities are among the best in the world, despite competition from larger and better funded institutions in the United States and Europe," he said.
"Based on these results our universities are ranked among the top 50 universities in the world in 21 different subjects, with 68 subjects ranked in the world's top 100.
However, Mr Whelan revealed that despite a minor improvement in the number of top-50 placings, the rankings underwent a lot of movement.
"This year, across the top 100 subjects, universities have slipped down the rankings in 13 subjects, improved in 13 subjects, and remained the same in 32 subjects. Ten are new subjects," he said.
Mr Whelan says one of the main areas of improvement this year was the ranking given by employers.
"Employers have demonstrated that they are very happy with the quality of graduates entering their profession or industry," he said.
"They have given New Zealand's universities an average score of 80 percent across the top 100 subjects."
However he says the country's tertiary providers should not take their lofty positions in particular subjects for granted, with the world's universities continually working to improve their rankings.
"International competition for rankings is just getting more intense as every country and university wants to attract the best teachers, researchers and students," he said.
"New Zealand universities receive about 70 percent of the funding per student as comparable universities in Australia and the United Kingdom.”
"If New Zealand wants to maintain the international quality of its university system for students and employers, it is going to need to take a hard look at the level of investment."
Highlights from the QS World University Rankings by subject:
Newshub.
