…and Otago is once again tops in philosophy (though, at the international level, in the PGR surveys, Auckland is usually tops in New Zealand).  This may, partly, have to do with the high per capita quality and productivity at Otago.

UPDATE:  A philosopher in New Zealand writes with an explanation of how their research exercise works:

Here is a simplified explanation of the “rankings”.  Every researcher that counts toward the ranking is given a grade of A, B, or C.  These grades are represented by numerical values which are then averaged to yield the “Average Quality Score (AQS)”.  The AQS is supposed to represent the mean quality of the researcher at a given institution in a given area  or dept.  It doesn’t take into account the number of researchers in that area (dept).  In principle, if an institution had 1 philosopher who scored an A, it would rank more highly than an institution with 100 A-rated philosophers and 1 B-rated philosopher.    

One major reason why Auckland scores better on the PGR is that it has roughly twice as many members as Otago and Vic.  Both the PGR rankings and the PBRF mean scores provide useful information.  As we can all agree, however, neither should be the only consideration in choosing a graduate program in philosophy.