World University Rankings by Subject 2025: Social Sciences

Top Social Sciences school rankings 2025: Leading universities for Politics, Sociology and International Studies

Discover the Social Sciences rankings results with the definitive Times Higher Education Subject Rankings 2025.

Highlights in the Social Sciences Subject Rankings 2025

• MIT maintains its leading position, now holding the top spot alone
• Stanford University moves to third place after previously sharing first place
• University of Oxford demonstrates exceptional performance in teaching and research environment
• London School of Economics and Political Science remains a top 10 institution, now ranked ninth
• Two Chinese institutions now feature in the top 20: Peking University (16th) and Tsinghua University (joint 20th)
• University of Basel makes a notable entry in the 126-150 band

The Social Sciences table evaluates universities across key disciplines: Communication and Media Studies, Politics and International Studies (including Development Studies), Sociology, Geography and Anthropology. This year’s rankings include 1,093 institutions from 100 countries and territories, which have been assessed based on 18 rigorous performance indicators.

Social Sciences disciplines assessed in the 2025 Rankings

• Political Science and International Relations: including development studies, public policy and governance
• Sociology: examining social structures, social change and human behaviour
• Geography: covering both human and physical geography
• Communication and Media Studies: analysing mass communication and media impacts
• Anthropology: studying human societies, cultures and development

Learn more:

The Social Sciences subject table uses the same trusted and rigorous performance indicators as the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025, but the methodology has been recalibrated to suit the discipline.

Our detailed 2025 Subject Rankings methodology, trusted worldwide by students, teachers, academics, governments and industry experts, is based on:

• 157 million citations
• 18 million research publications
• Survey responses from more than 93,000 scholars globally

Our analysis shows that, despite their success elsewhere, Asia’s leading universities are still struggling to compete globally in arts and humanities.

To unlock the data behind THE’s rankings and access a range of analytical and benchmarking tools, visit our data and insights page.