Greater diversity of universities than ever in Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2024 by subject 

There is a greater diversity of universities and countries excelling across THE’s World University Rankings 2024 by subject, but they are still dominated by US and UK institutions. 

The top positions of the 11 subject rankings show increasing diversity, which is most evident when compared with the World University Rankings 2020 by subject, especially in social sciences, education, business and economics. 

Five years ago, only US and UK universities featured in the top 10 in business and economics ranking. In contrast, this year, two of the places are taken up by Chinese institutions: Tsinghua University and Peking University.  

In the ranking for the field of education, five years ago, nine of the top 10 places were taken by US and UK institutions, with Hong Kong taking the other place. This year education’s top 10 has universities from five countries: China, Canada, Hong Kong, US and UK. In addition, five years ago 62 per cent of the top 50 universities were from the US and UK and this year it is 52 per cent and universities from 15 countries are represented this year compared with 12 in the 2020 edition. 

Sixty-four per cent of the top 50 universities in the social sciences ranking consisted of US and UK institutions five years ago and this year it is 60 per cent and universities from 14 countries are represented this year compared with 12 in the 2020 edition. 

Universities from the US and UK take the number one positions across all 11 of the subject rankings, with the UK’s University of Oxford claiming top spot in both clinical and health and computer science and US universities coming first in the other nine subjects: arts and humanities, business and economics, education, engineering, law, life sciences, physical sciences, psychology and social sciences. Arts and humanities, life sciences and social sciences only have UK and US universities in the top 10 this year.  

Harvard University and Stanford University top the most subjects – three. Harvard University tops engineering, law and life sciences, while Stanford tops arts and humanities, psychology and is joint top in social sciences. Massachusetts Institute of Technology comes top in business and economics and joint top in social sciences. 

If you reproduce any part of these ranking tables or charts, please attribute it to “Times Higher Education World University Rankings by subject,” and link to the full list on our website. The methodology is here.  

Top 10 universities by country across 11 subjects in 2024 edition 

Top 50 

• Germany and Netherlands are the two best performing countries in continental Europe per number of universities ranked in the top 50 of each subject
• Compared to World University Rankings 2020 the US-UK block is less present in the top 50 in social sciences, education, business and economics. 

Top 50 universities by country across 11 subjects

General global highlights: 

• Some of the best universities in the world in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) are in the Middle East and North Africa while other blocks are more focused on non-STEM subjects including Southern and Eastern Europe 
• Sub-Saharan African countries do best in clinical and health 
• North African and Arabic countries focus on computer science, engineering and physical sciences 
• North Europe’s focus is on science, while South and East Europe are more focused on the humanities 
• South America is more focused on non-scientific subjects 
• The UK’s overall score has improved in all subjects this year 
• India leads the rise in new entrants in engineering with 20 and 14 in computer science. However only one of those universities are in the 101-125 band and the rest are in band 301-400 or lower. 

* Scroll down for top 10 tables for all 11 subjects with links to full result tables and methodologies  

THE’s World University Rankings 2024 subject is compiled from data from THE’s World University Rankings 2024, which is the most comprehensive, rigorous and balanced global ranking assessing research-intensive universities in the world.  

The same 18 performance indicators are used (up from 13 last year) which are grouped into five pillars: teaching, research quality, research environment, international outlook and industry. Four of the five new metrics include three that look at research quality and one that examines patents in the industry pillar. For subject, the methodology is carefully recalibrated for each subject, with the weightings changed to suit the individual fields.  

Phil Baty, Chief global affairs officer, commented:  

“THE World University Rankings by subject provide further evidence of a clear trend, which we also saw in the World Rankings, of the waning dominance of US-UK universities in higher education. 

“East Asian nations continue to strengthen in key areas with Chinese universities, in particular, standing out, as well as those in Hong Kong and Singapore. 

“Times Higher Education’s subject rankings deploy the same rigorous and trusted 18 performance metrics as the gold-standard World University Rankings, and provide valuable, rich subject-level insights to help inform government policymaking and institutional strategy.  

“The more detailed information about how universities are performing in specific subjects is also a vital resource for many millions of prospective students who use Times Higher Education’s data insights, giving them rich and deep information to help inform their decision-making.” 

In the 20th year of the World University Rankings, 1,904 universities are ranked overall – up from 1,799 last year - from 108 countries and regions. Producing the global ranking is a significant data exercise, with input from an academic survey including more than 65,000 responses and bibliometrics on the tally of research papers and citations, as well as data provided by institutions. For this year’s analysis, 16.5 million research papers were examined which is 1 million more than last year. Additionally, 134 million citations have been examined, compared with last year’s 121 million. 

ENDS 

THE’s World University Rankings 2024: arts and humanities - top 10   

• Only universities from the US and UK are in the top 10 in arts and humanities 
• The University of Barcelona, Spain, has entered the top 100 in joint 87th place, up from band 151-175 
• Indiana University in the US has also entered the top 100 in 93rd place from band 126-150 last year 

View the full ranking of THE’s World University Rankings 2024: arts and humanities   

View the World University Rankings 2024: arts and humanities methodology  

World University Rankings 2024: business and economics - top 10  

• China has double the number of universities in the top 10 this year from last with two. Peking University has climbed a significant five places from 15th last year to 10th this year entering the top 10 for the first time. Tsinghua University was the first Chinese university in the top 10 last year in 8th place and has maintained that position this year.  
• Harvard University moved up one place from last year from 4th to 3rd this year 
• London School of Economics and Political Science has fallen out of the top 10 from 10th last year to 11th this year 
• The University of Reading and University of Massachusetts have both entered the top 100 this year coming 79th and joint 80th, respectively, this year (they were in bands 101-125 and 126-150 respectively). 

 View the full ranking of World University Rankings 2024: business and economics  

View the World University Rankings 2024: business and economics methodology  

World University Rankings 2024: clinical and health - top 10 

• While the top 100 for clinical and health has one of the most diverse range of countries it has not seen a significant change from last year 
• Johns Hopkins University in the US, which dropped out of the top 10 last year, coming 11th, has re-entered the top 10, moving up five places, coming 6th this year 
• The US’s University of Pennsylvania has entered the top 10, coming 10th up five places from 15th last year
• The UK’s King’s College London drops out of the top 10 falling to 13th place, after last year getting into the top 10 by rising two places
• The UK takes four of the top 10 spots, down from five last year. 

View the full World University Rankings 2024: clinical and health  

View World University Rankings 2024: clinical and health methodology  

World University Rankings 2024: computer science - top 10  

• Imperial College London in the UK has entered the top 10 moving from joint 11th last year to 8th this year 
• The US’s Princeton University has also entered the top 10 moving from joint 11th last year to 9th place this year 
• Aarhus University in Denmark moves into the top 100 moving from band 126-150 last year to joint 93rd this year 
• Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan also moves into the top 100 moving from the 126-150 to joint 97th this year 
• India leads the rise in new entrants in this subject with 14 (compared with last year) however only one of those universities is in the 101-125 band and the rest are in band 401-500 or lower. 

View the full World University Rankings 2024: computer science   

View the World University Rankings 2024: computer science methodology   

World University Rankings 2024: education - top 10   

• Top 100 for education has shown increasing diversification with six new countries joining this group: Austria, Brazil, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, Russian Federation. 
• The UK and Australia have two fewer universities compared with last year 
• Education is the best ranked subject in China, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Spain 
• Tsinghua University in China has entered the top 10 coming 7th   
• Michigan State University in the US falls out of top 10 after re-entering the top 10 last year. It fell from 9th to 13th place 
• University of Alberta in Canada has also joined the top 100, coming joint 75th up from band 126-150 
• The Netherlands’ University of Groningen also joined the top 100, coming 80th up from band 126-150. 

View the full World University Rankings 2024: education   

View World University Rankings 2024: education methodology    

World University Rankings 2024: engineering - top 10  

• Imperial College London in the UK has entered the top 10, coming 10th, up four places from 14th last year 
• Institut Polytechnique de Paris, France, moves into the top 100 moving from band 101-125 to 99th place 
• The US has five more universities in the top 300 this year compared with last year 
• India has the most new entrants in this subject with 20 (compared with last year) however only one of those universities is in the 101-125 band and the rest are in band 301-400 or lower. 

View the full World University Rankings 2024: engineering  

See the World University Rankings 2024: engineering methodology   

World University Rankings 2024: law - top 10  

• Law is the best ranked subject in Italy, Ukraine, Poland, South Africa and Australia 
• The US’s Harvard University has moved up five places from last year from 6th to 1st  
• Germany has increased its representation in the top 100 from five last year to seven this year, while Australian universities have decreased from nine last year to six this year 
• Columbia University in the US re-joins the top 10, moving from 12th last year to joint 4th this year  
• The University of Oslo in Norway has moved up more than 20 places from joint 64th last year to joint 43rd this year 
• University of Cologne in Germany joins the top 100 moving up to 57th place this year from band 151-175 last year 
• UK (8), Spain (6) and Italy (6) lead the new entrants for this subject (compared with last year). 

View the World University Rankings 2024: law   

View the World University Rankings 2024: law methodology    

World University Rankings 2024: life sciences - top 10  

• US dominates the top 10, filling 7 of the spots and tops the subject table with Harvard University  
• Peking University in China has edged closer to the top 10 moving up six places from 18th last year to joint 12th this year 
• Osaka University in Japan, which was joint 100th last year, has moved up 32 places to joint 68th this year  
• Purdue University West Lafayette moved into the top 100 moving from band 126-150 last year to joint 84th this year. 

View the World University Rankings 2024: life sciences  

View World University Rankings 2024: life sciences methodology   

World University Rankings 2024: physical sciences - top 10   

• California Institute of Technology has risen three places from last year to take the number one spot in physical sciences this year 
• Switzerland is the only country outside of the UK and the US to have a university in the top 10, with ETH Zurich coming 9th  
• Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, has entered the top 100, coming 97th this year, up from band 101-125 last year 
• The US has four more universities in the top 100, taking total representation from 34 last year to 38 this year 
• More universities in the US participated in physical sciences than any other country with 163 
• The UK’s best scoring subject is physical sciences, considering countries with at least 10 universities continuously ranked. The UK is 5th in the world in this subject.  

View the full World University Rankings 2024: physical sciences   

View the World University Rankings 2024: physical sciences methodology  

World University Rankings 2024: psychology - top 10  

• Canada’s University of Toronto has entered the top 10 moving up nine places from 19th last year to 10th this year, making it the only non-US or UK university in the top 10 
• The University of Chicago in the US, which had dropped out of the top 10 last year falling to 12th has re-entered the top 10 this year coming 9th  
• Ghent University in Belgium is one spot away from a top 50 place this year coming 51st up from joint 69th last year 
• Beijing Normal University in China has entered the top 100 this year moving from band 101-125 to finish 68th this year 
• The US has four more universities in the top 100 this year with 44 compared with last year. 

View the full World University Rankings 2024: psychology  

View World University Rankings 2024: psychology methodology   

World University Rankings 2024: social sciences - top 10  

• The highest participation rate for social sciences comes from the UK with 95 universities ranked  
• US (7) and UK (3) universities dominate the top 10 
• Spain’s Autonomous University of Barcelona has entered the top 100 coming 85th up from band 101-125 last year 
• Two new US universities entered the top 250 in social sciences this year. 

 View the full World University Rankings 2024: social sciences  

View the World University Rankings 2024: social sciences methodology   

***ENDS***