Which NZ schools best prepare students for global success? Crimson’s Top 50 list sparks scrutiny
Sunday, 22 March 2026
An earlier version of this story had schools in the incorrect order in the Top 50. We regret the error.
Auckland’s ACG Parnell College has been named New Zealand’s top school for getting students into the world’s best universities in private tutoring firm Crimson Education’s latest annual rankings.
But the list is facing criticism from an education researcher who says parents should be wary of a ranking built on unpublished data.
The central Auckland private school took out the top spot, followed by Kristin School - another private school on the North Shore - after St. Cuthbert’s College dropped two spots and lost the pole position it held for two years.
ACG Parnell associate principal Edmund Coup said the school was “really, really pleased” with the result and proud of both its students and staff.
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Last year the school recorded its best-ever performance in the Cambridge Outstanding Learner Awards, with success spread across every faculty rather than concentrated in one subject area.
“It’s not just one faculty that’s doing amazing things with our students, it’s all of them.”
Coup said the strong performance extended beyond top prizewinners. At the school’s scholars’ assembly, 332 students were recognised for scoring above 90 percent in at least one Cambridge exam — about 40 percent of the student body. He said the breadth of those results was a major point of pride for the school.
“We work on a culture of students progressing towards their personal best,” he said.
“We’re not always talking about the A stars. We’re talking about students aiming to do better than they have before.”
He said entry to elite overseas universities was a focus for some students, but not all. The school’s university placement adviser met with all senior students, whether they were aiming for the University of Auckland, Australian universities or highly selective institutions overseas.
For those targeting elite global universities, he said, that ambition often had to be built over many years.
“Whether they’re going down the road to [the University of] Auckland like I did, or whether they’re looking to go to the top-ranked universities in the world, we think that we support all of our students extremely well.”
Crimson’s list this year includes some big movers. ACG Sunderland entered the rankings in fifth place, Queen Margaret College rose seven places to eighth, and Takapuna Grammar School jumped 21 places to 17th.
Beaton said growth in International Baccalaureate (IB) participation had helped some schools climb, and pointed to Takapuna Grammar as an example of stronger academic performance coming through.
Takapuna Grammar principal Mary Nixon said it was pleasing to see the school’s commitment to supporting students recognised.
The school offers both NCEA and IB which Nixon said helped foster a love of learning, alongside opportunities in leadership, sports, arts and service.
Teachers and the school also maintained clear and consistent expectations, while providing the support students need to meet them, she said.
“Takapuna Grammar has been working hard to promote the scholarship programme and encourage more students to aim for and achieve this goal.
“We are continually strengthening our school culture by bringing our values to life, building on what is already happening and making these values more visible and meaningful in everyday practice.”
Of the top 50 schools, private and well-resourced schools are heavily represented at the top - and Auckland dominates the rankings with 30 schools included in the list.
Crimson founder Jamie Beaton attributes the Super City’s prominence to a mix of migration, resources, and culture.
“A lot of the migration of high-achieving academic students… has gone to Auckland,” he said.
He also pointed to stronger academic cultures and access to extracurricular opportunities and university-level study.
“There’s a high concentration of competitive extracurriculars in Auckland… and that creates an achievement culture.”
Crimson, which is a university admissions consultancy, builds its rankings from a weighted formula.
Academic performance makes up 70 percent, with extracurricular and leadership opportunities worth 15 percent and access and diversity another 15 percent.
Academic results are drawn from the 2024 school year and include NCEA, NZQA scholarship, International Baccalaureate and Cambridge results, which the report says are weighted equally. It also considers national academic awards and 2025-26 admission results to Ivy League and other top universities.
Beaton says Crimson has spent eight years refining the rankings, and that the academic component looks across multiple systems to compare performance between schools offering different qualifications.
To do that, he said, Crimson uses comparability benchmarks set by Oxford and Cambridge for admissions.
Crimson then adds extra weighting for exceptional academic performance, including top scholarship and international exam results.
The extracurricular component, Beaton said, is intended to capture the breadth of opportunities available to students beyond the classroom — from chemistry olympiads to robotics competitions — because top universities do not admit on grades alone.
“Getting into a top university on the world stage generally requires a lot of excellence in extracurriculars,” he said.
The final part of the formula, diversity and access, looks at scholarships and school demographics. Beaton said Crimson wanted to reward schools whose student populations better reflect the wider country.
“If a school has demographics more aligned to New Zealand’s demographics at large, that’s a more representative school environment to be a part of,” he said.
Beaton said they publish the list to help them navigate an increasingly complex decision because they can’t rely on a school’s reputation.
“Parents face a fairly complicated choice as to where to send their child for high school, and the university entrance landscape is getting more competitive across the world,” Beaton said.
However, the rankings have drawn criticism from education researcher Alwyn Poole, who questioned both the methodology and the way the list is presented.
“The heading is ‘top 50 schools… for gaining admission into the world’s top universities’,” Poole said.
“So the data… should really simply be: here are the top universities, and how many students from each school got into them.”
He argued that without that direct measure, the ranking lacks clarity.
“Then you’d have a credible dataset… it’s pretty straightforward.”
Poole also raised concerns about transparency, noting Crimson does not release its underlying data.
“Without sharing the data, I don’t think it’s a credible report,” he said.
“If something was going to be held as a credible report in the academic world, it would be peer reviewed — and that requires you sharing the data.”
Beaton said withholding raw data was standard practice for rankings organisations.
“Rankings companies don’t typically release raw data… but we go into detail about how the methodology works.”
Beaton said he wouldn’t release the detailed methodology and data because it was proprietary.
Poole also questioned the weighting system — particularly the inclusion of extracurriculars and diversity — and how those are assessed.
“How do you judge that? What’s the criteria … how have they gathered their information?” he said.
He suggested the list may not reflect overall school performance in New Zealand, pointing to discrepancies with other measures such as University Entrance (UE).
“Hamilton Boys’ High… ranks much lower for UE. So how do they make this list at all?”
He also argued a number of high-performing schools by UE rates were absent.
“There are schools… getting high percentages of University Entrance compared to their roll that aren’t on this list.”
Poole said the rankings’ focus on elite global universities risked narrowing how success is defined.
“To give the impression that unless you are getting into an Ivy League school… you’re not really doing a worthwhile thing — that does a disservice to many New Zealand students,” he said.
“There are many good colleges across the world, and also really good courses within New Zealand.”
He said students could achieve equivalent outcomes across a wide range of institutions, particularly in fields like engineering where qualifications are standardised.
“It doesn’t matter which college you go to — if you pass and excel, it’s equivalent.”
New Zealand’s top 50 ranked schools (Bracketed numbers denote the change from last year’s placings). Find more on the list here.
ACG Parnell (+1)
Kristin School (+1)
St. Cuthbert’s College (-2)
Pinehurst School (=)
ACG Sunderland (new)
St Kentigern College (+1)
Baradene College (+3)
Queen Margaret College (+7)
Diocesan School for Girls (-4)
Auckland Grammar School (-1)
Samuel Marsden Collegiate (-1)
ACG Strathallan (new)
Rangi Ruru Girls’ School (-5)
ACG Tauranga (-2)
Macleans College (-1)
Rangitoto College (-10)
Takapuna Grammar School (+21)
Westlake Boys’ High School (-)
Woodford House (-8)
St. Margarets College (-4)
Columba College (new)
Iona College (+2)
Scots College (-)
King’s College (-4)
St. Andrew’s College (-6)
Marist College (+11)
St Peter’s College (Auckland) (-10)
Lindisfarne Collefe (-15)
Wellington College (-2)
Sacred Heart College (-5)
St. Mary’s College (-)
Hutt International Boys (+4)
Epsom Girls Grammar (-7)
Christ’s College (-13)
Wellington Girls’ College (-)
Waikato Diocesan School (-6)
Carmel College (-15)
Wentworth College (+5)
Westlake Girls’ High School (-11)
Glendowie College (-11)
St. Peter School Cambridge (-9)
St. Paul’s Collegiate (Hamilton) (-8)
Sancta Maria College (-10)
Mt. Albert Grammar School (-5)
Botany Downs Secondary (-3)
Selwyn College (-6)
Long Bay College (-6)
Rosmini College (-3)
Napier Girls’ High School (-5)
Hamilton Boys’ High School (-4)