In May 2026, the seven members of the Innovative Research Universities (IRU) were joined by two new member universities to form the 2050 Alliance. The IRU website has now been archived. Please find us at 2050alliance.edu.au

IRU Statistics

11% of all research publications

in Australia during the last decade have been produced by IRU members.

In the last decade, IRU members have produced 15% of Australia’s highly cited and 12% of very highly cited publications in Social Sciences and Humanities.

In the last decade, IRU members have produced 14% of Australia’s highly cited and 14% of very highly cited publications in Life and Earth Sciences.

IRU members earn $489 million in research income representing 7% of all university research income.

We enrol 24% of Australia’s low SES undergraduate students.

IRU members enrolled 43,002 international students across all course levels in 2021.

2.4% of IRU students are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

We educate 17.3%

Of Australia’s undergraduate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

We educated

218,141 students

across all course levels in

2021

that’s

14.7%

of the sector

Our Universities

Rank in the top 500

universities in the world
(Times Higher Education Rankings 2020)