World University Rankings 2020 by subject: life sciences

The 2020 Times Higher Education World University Rankings table for life sciences subjects uses the same trusted and rigorous performance indicators as the overall World University Rankings, but the metric weightings have been recalibrated to suit the individual fields.

The 13 performance indicators assess several areas of life sciences, including biological sciences, veterinary science, agriculture and forestry, and sport science.

The ranking includes 821 universities, up from 751 last year.

View the World University Rankings 2020 by subject: life sciences methodology

The University of Cambridge tops the ranking for the first time under the current methodology (since 2011), knocking Harvard University down to second place. The rest of the global top five remain unchanged from last year; the University of Oxford is third, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology finishes fourth, and Stanford University sits at fifth.

China’s Tsinghua University ranks as Asia’s top institution, despite dropping out of the top 10 to finish 15th. Fourteen Asian institutions in total appear in the top 100, two more than last year, while several manage to make progress despite tough competition.

Few institutions make significant gains in this year’s ranking, although Australia’s Monash University bucks this trend by rising 23 places to 55th. Meanwhile, Germany’s University of Bonn enters the ranking for the first time, placing in joint 86th place.

To raise your university’s global profile with Times Higher Education, contact branding@timeshighereducation.com

To unlock the data behind THE’s rankings, and access a range of analytical and benchmarking tools, contact data@timeshighereducation.com