The Australian National University has continued its slide down an esteemed list of the globe's best higher education institutions.
The largest university in the nation's capital dropped three places on the coveted QS World University rankings.
ANU was placed at No20 this week, its lowest since being included on the list, but it remains the highest-ranked university in Australia.
The university's vice-chancellor, Professor Ian Chubb, has in the past used ANU's strong rankings to argue for better funding.
But a decline started in 2009 when ANU fell from 16th to 17th.
ANU's acting vice-chancellor, Professor Lawrence Cram, said yesterday a university could not be boiled down to a raw data score.
''I think it's not so much a drop as much as the fact that the scores are very very close,'' Professor Cram said.
''Some of the differences are one part in 300.''
There was 0.67 of a point between ANU and 19th-placed McGill University in Canada, which had threatened to overtake ANU for the past three years and finally did so this week.
For more on this story, including details of where other universities placed on the list, see the print edition of today's Canberra Times.
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