AUT breaks into global top 25 for sports
Auckland University of Technology (AUT) has strengthened its position as one of the world’s leading sports universities, climbing 15 places to 23rd globally for sports-related subjects in the prestigious QS World University Rankings by Subject.
The result places AUT firmly among the global leaders in sport education and reinforces its growing international reputation for applied learning, world-class research, and close partnerships with sporting organisations.
Head of the School of Sport, Exercise and Health, Dr Katie Bruffy, said the significant improvement on last year’s result recognises AUT’s commitment to impact, inclusion, and partnership.
“This fantastic result reflects AUT’s strength in building and advancing partnerships with stakeholders and other world-renowned academics,” Katie said.
“With AUT's Sport Research Institute New Zealand (SPRINZ) based at AUT Millennium, a unique environment that brings together community participation, health and wellbeing, and high-performance sport, our students and researchers are immersed in a setting that truly reflects the full sport ecosystem. It’s an ideal platform to inspire learning and deliver research with real-world impact.
“Our official partnerships with some of the biggest names in sport, such as Auckland FC, and global healthcare, including Abbott, highlight our unique, industry-connected advantage.”
The 2026 QS subject rankings evaluated more than 18,300 programmes across 55 disciplines at over 1,700 universities. Universities were evaluated according to five metrics: academic reputation, employer reputation, citations per paper, H-index and International Research Network.
Highlighting AUT’s research excellence in sports-related subjects, the university was ranked equal fifth in the H-index – a measure of both the productivity and citation impact of a researcher's publication – and 12th in citations per paper.
“The research coming out of SPRINZ, the AUT Human Potential Research Institute (HPRI) and the AUT Brain Health Research Institute (BHRI) is recognised internationally for both its quality and impact.
“AUT researchers in sport produce highly cited, globally impactful research that is enabled by our partnerships with organisations such as High Performance Sport New Zealand and Sport NZ.”
“Working alongside these partners ensures our research addresses real-world challenges and delivers impact at a global scale.”
SPRINZ co-director, Eric Helms, said the School’s thriving postgraduate research culture is another key factor behind its rise into the world’s top 25.
“We foster a highly productive and collaborative postgraduate environment, particularly at PhD level,” Eric said. “Our PhD students primarily come from abroad and bring with them fantastic global connections and unique experience and expertise.
“Because of our collaborative environment, our students typically publish multiple high-impact papers in the field of sport-related research, driving our global research impact even further.”