Aussie universities are the real high achievers Newcastle University students Tegan Ward, Ellen Drinkwater and Lucy Vivers enjoy a coffee at the uni cafeteria / Pic: Peter Lorimer Source: The Daily Telegraph AUSTRALIA is challenging the powerhouses of US and Britain as a leader in higher learning and research. New world rankings show Australia is now the second strongest academic nation on the prestigious list of leading universities less than 50 years old with 13 institutions in the top 100 - behind only the UK with 14. Macquarie University (36th), the University of Newcastle (40th) and the University of Wollongong (43rd), along with the Queensland University of Technology (26th) are Australia's best performers. Times Higher Education magazine has published the 2013 edition of its annual 100 Under 50 ranking, a snapshot of the world's top 100 universities less than 50 years old. The rankings examine the performance of the new breed of universities that have joined the world's best within decades instead of centuries. Times Higher Education editor Phil Baty said it was "good news for Australia." "Australian universities did very well ... this list shows the true strength of its system," he said. It includes representatives from the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s and shows that it is not just Australia's traditional elite that can compete on the world stage. But Mr Baty said there were warning signs for Australia in cutting back its investment in higher education. "Many nations are focusing on building world-class institutions backed with serious investment so Australia's recently confirmed funding cuts should be viewed with concern," he said. For these younger universities to create something excellent without the centuries of history, without the many decades of alumni donations, they need a lot of cash to really thrive. The $2.3 billion in cuts to higher education will be used to partially fund the federal government's contribution to the Gonski reforms in prim-ary and secondary schools. Second-year international business and languages student Lucy Vivers, 20, said yesterday Newcastle was a great university because it had a lot of variety in its academic program. "It has an excellent social program as well so students do not feel restricted to just studies," she said. Murdoch University, founded in 1973, joins the top 100 list for the first time in 57th. South Korea's Postech heads the list of the world's top 100 young universities for the second consecutive year. Eight nations have universities in the world's top 10. Singapore and the Netherlands joining South Korea, Switzerland, Hong Kong, the US, the UK and France.