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The Times Higher Education World Academic Summit 2015 will take place in Melbourne, Australia, in partnership with The University of Melbourne, it was announced today.

The flagship conference, which brings together senior university, government and industry leaders in one of the most prestigious gatherings in the world, will take place from 30 September to 2 October 2015. It will feature the exclusive launch of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2015-2016.

, editor at large and Rankings editor for Times Higher Education, said: ¡°Not only is Melbourne one of the greatest cities in the world, it is also home to one of the greatest universities in the world. The University of Melbourne is consistently ranked as the number one university in Australia, and it is of course a real leader in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. So we have the perfect setting, and the perfect host, to build on the success of our World Academic Summit?2013 in Singapore.

¡°The summit brings together outstanding global thought leaders from industry, government, higher education and research to explore the fundamental role that world-class universities play in pushing the boundaries of our collective understanding and fuelling the future knowledge economy. The event offers unparalleled opportunities to network, share experience and set the agenda for the global future of higher education and research,¡± said Mr Baty.

He added: ¡°I am particularly pleased to be hosting the launch of the 2015-16 É«ºÐÖ±²¥ World University Rankings exclusively at the Melbourne summit. The global rankings have never been more prominent in global higher education strategy and the summit will be a unique opportunity to engage with the data, to unpick the methodology and to examine the results¡¯ trends at the very moment of their worldwide release.¡±

Glyn Davis, the University of Melbourne¡¯s vice-chancellor, said: ¡°Melbourne prides itself on its position as a knowledge city, so it is only fitting that É«ºÐÖ±²¥ would choose our city as the first Australian city to hold its summit.

¡°Repeatedly ranked as the World¡¯s Most Liveable City, Melbourne will provide an ideal backdrop for industry leaders to meet to consider global issues in higher education and research and to forge or renew partnerships with leading institutions,¡± he said.

The biannual É«ºÐÖ±²¥ World Academic Summit is the flagship event of an expanding É«ºÐÖ±²¥ World Summit Series, which also includes the É«ºÐÖ±²¥ BRICS & Emerging Economies Universities Summit (which takes place in Moscow on 3-4 December 2014) and the É«ºÐÖ±²¥ MENA Universities Summit, focused on the Middle East and North Africa (which takes place in Qatar on 23-24 February 2015).

The É«ºÐÖ±²¥ World University Rankings are the most widely referenced and most highly regarded of the global university rankings systems, employing 13 separate performance indicators covering the full range of an institution¡¯s key missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.