It has placed in the top 100 "young" universities in the world according to the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) world rankings, which put UC in the 91-100 band of universities under the age of 50.

QS has traditionally run a "Top 50 under 50", but this year published the "Next 50 Under 50" list.

The new ranking caps off a successful year for UC having also made the 2015-2016 Times Higher Education league table and also climbed more than 100 places in the 2015-16 QS World University Rankings announced earlier this year.

In September it placed 25th in Australia after jumping into QS's 551-600 category.

In October, UC made it for the first time into the 501-600 band of the Times Higher Education ranking out of 800 institutions worldwide.

UC Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Parker said he was thrilled by the recognition of the university's teaching and research staff.

He also noted that the UC had achieved one of its strategic plan aims - to crack a top 100 in a prestigious league table by 2018 - two years ahead of time.

"This is fantastic news and the result confirms the university's continuing ascent as one of the best young universities in the world, consolidating its position in the top four per cent of tertiary institutions worldwide," Professor Parker said.

The recognition of universities under 50 years old was important given they lacked the traditional support, funding and research base of more established institutions.

QS said it had extended the list to include 100 of the world's "bright young things" which were challenging the long-established institutions which have previously tended to dominate the rankings tables.

The University of Canberra has been operating as a university for only 25 years - following the Dawkins reforms which transformed it from the Canberra College of Advanced Education.

Professor Parker said that the recent recruitment of some top researchers, winning more competitive grants and an improved research performance across the board had contributed to UC's success.

"We are a very young university, which has never been specially funded for research, but we are now being considered alongside universities which have much longer track records. Our education and research performance has been rising sharply over the last few years and we are determined to continue this steadfast ascent in the years to come," Professor Parker said.

Professor Parker has announced his intention to resign midway through next year - handing the reins of UC to a new Vice-Chancellor after nine years in the job.