The World University Rankings by Subject 2025 will be published on 22 January.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2025 methodology is designed to evaluate universities across 11 subject areas using a refined version of the overall World University Rankings 2025 methodology. Employing the same range of 18 performance indicators categorised under five core pillars, THE provides a comprehensive view of academic and research excellence. The methodology is carefully adjusted for each subject, ensuring fairness and accuracy by considering field-specific research cultures and publication practices.
Discover how universities are ranked, the indicators are used, and why the THE World University Rankings by Subject are a trusted benchmark for global academic performance.
Key criteria for Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject
Five core pillars of evaluation
- Teaching: evaluates teaching reputation, student-to-staff ratio, doctorate-to-bachelor ratio, doctorate-to-staff ratio and institutional income
- Research Environment: focuses on research reputation, income, and productivity
- Research Quality: includes citation impact, research strength, research excellence, and influence
- Industry: measures income from industry partnerships and patents
- International Outlook: accounts for international students, staff and co-authorship
Recalibration for Subject Areas
Weightings adjustments by subject
Each subject's ranking methodology is recalibrated to reflect unique academic cultures, with the weightings changed to suit the individual fields. In particular, those given to the research indicators have been altered to fit more closely the research culture in each subject, reflecting different publication habits. For instance, in Arts and Humanities, where the range of research outputs extends well beyond peer-reviewed journals, we give less weight to paper citations.. Meanwhile, Engineering focuses more on research productivity and industry collaboration.
Subject areas included in the rankings
The 11 subject rankings for 2025 are:
- Arts and Humanities
- Business and Economics
- Computer Science
- Education Studies
- Engineering
- Law
- Life Sciences
- Medical and Health
- Physical Sciences
- Psychology
- Social Sciences
Two of the subject rankings have new names for 2025: Medical and Health (formerly Clinical and Health) and Education Studies (formerly Education). These are changes in name only; the rankings are based on the same subject areas as in previous years.
Disciplines covered in each subject area
Each subject ranking is based on a range of narrower disciplines, with the exceptions of Computer Science and Law, which are already single disciplines. The narrower disciplines for the remaining nine subjects are listed below.
Arts and Humanities
- Art, performing arts and design
- Languages, literature and linguistics
- History, philosophy and theology
- Architecture
- Archaeology
Business and Economics
- Business and management
- Accounting and finance
- Economics and econometrics
Education Studies
- Education
- Teacher training
- Academic studies in education
Engineering
- General engineering
- Electrical and electronic engineering
- Mechanical and aerospace engineering
- Civil engineering
- Chemical engineering
Life Sciences
- Agriculture and forestry
- Biological sciences
- Veterinary science
- Sport science
Medical and Health
- Medicine and dentistry
- Other health
Physical Sciences
- Mathematics and statistics
- Physics and astronomy
- Chemistry
- Geology, environmental, earth and marine sciences
Psychology
- Psychology
- Educational/sport/business/animal psychology
- Clinical psychology
Social Sciences
- Communication and media studies
- Politics and international studies (including development studies)
- Sociology
- Geography
Indicator weightings for Subject Rankings
Performance indicator breakdown
The indicator weightings for the overall World University Rankings 2025 and each of the World University Rankings by Subject 2025 are displayed in the below table.
| Pillar | Indicator | Overall | Arts and Humanities | Business and Economics | Computer Science | Education Studies | Engineering | Law | Life Sciences | Medical and Health | Physical Sciences | Psychology | Social Sciences |
| Teaching | Teaching reputation | 15% | 25.3% | 21.1% | 19.5% | 20% | 19.5% | 21% | 17.9% | 17.9% | 17.90% | 17.9% | 21.1% |
| Student:staff ratio | 4.5% | 3.90% | 3.3% | 3% | 4.5% | 3% | 4.5% | 2.8% | 2.8% | 2.8% | 2.8% | 3.3% | |
| Doctorate:bachelor ratio | 2% | 1.7% | 0% | 1% | 0% | 1% | 0% | 1.2% | 1.2% | 1.20% | 1.2% | 1.4% | |
| Doctorate:staff ratio | 5.5% | 4.3% | 4.2% | 3% | 5.3% | 3% | 4.2% | 3.3% | 3.3% | 3.3% | 3.3% | 4.3% | |
| Institutional income | 2.5% | 2.1% | 1.8% | 1.5% | 2.4% | 1.5% | 2.5% | 1.6% | 1.6% | 1.6% | 1.6% | 1.8% | |
| Research environment | Research reputation | 18% | 30% | 22.8% | 21% | 20% | 21% | 21% | 19.3% | 19.3% | 19.3% | 19.3% | 22.8% |
| Research income | 5.5% | 3.6% | 4.4% | 4% | 4.4% | 4% | 4.4% | 3.6% | 3.6% | 3.6% | 3.6% | 4.4% | |
| Research productivity | 5.5% | 3.6% | 4.4% | 4% | 4.4% | 4% | 4.4% | 3.6% | 3.6% | 3.6% | 3.6% | 4.4% | |
| Research quality | Citation impact | 15% | 7.5% | 13% | 13.7% | 13.7% | 13.7% | 12.4% | 17.5% | 17.5% | 17.5% | 17.5% | 12.4% |
| Research strength | 5% | 2.5% | 4% | 4.6% | 4.6% | 4.6% | 4.2% | 5.9% | 5.9% | 5.9% | 5.9% | 4.2% | |
| Research excellence | 5% | 2.5% | 4% | 4.6% | 4.60% | 4.6% | 4.2% | 5.9% | 5.9% | 5.9% | 5.9% | 4.2% | |
| Research influence | 5% | 2.5% | 4% | 4.60% | 4.6% | 4.6% | 4.2% | 5.9% | 5.9% | 5.9% | 5.9% | 4.2% | |
| Industry | Industry income | 2% | 1.5% | 2% | 4% | 2% | 4% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% |
| Patents | 2% | 1.5% | 2% | 4% | 2% | 4% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | |
| International outlook | International students | 2.5% | 2.5% | 3% | 2.5% | 2.5% | 2.5% | 3% | 2.5% | 2.5% | 2.5% | 2.5% | 2.5% |
| International staff | 2.5% | 2.5% | 3% | 2.5% | 2.5% | 2.5% | 3% | 2.5% | 2.5% | 2.5% | 2.5% | 2.5% | |
| International co-authorship | 2.5% | 2.5% | 3% | 2.5% | 2.5% | 2.5% | 3% | 2.5% | 2.5% | 2.5% | 2.5% | 2.5% | |
| Studying abroad | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | |
| Total | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
Inclusion criteria for Subject Rankings
Publication thresholds
There are two criteria for inclusion in the subject rankings: a publication threshold by discipline and an academic staff threshold by discipline. An institution also needs to be active in a subject to be included.
No institution can be included in the overall World University Rankings unless it has published a minimum of 1,000 relevant publications over the five years we examine (2019-2023 for the 2025 rankings), and at least 100 publications in each of these years.
For the 11 subject tables, the publication thresholds are lower. They differ depending on the volume of publications typically generated by each subject area, as displayed in the below table.
|
Ranking |
Publication threshold over five years (2019-2023) |
|
Overall |
1,000 (100 per year) |
|
Arts and Humanities |
250 |
|
Business and Economics |
200 |
|
Computer Science |
500 |
|
Education Studies |
100 |
|
Engineering |
500 |
|
Law |
100 |
|
Life Sciences |
500 |
|
Medical and Health |
500 |
|
Physical Sciences |
500 |
|
Psychology |
150 |
|
Social Sciences |
200 |
Academic staff requirements
We also expect an institution to have either a minimum proportion of its academic staff in a discipline or a minimum number of academic staff in a discipline. Academic staff is defined as the full-time equivalent number of staff members employed in an academic post, for example, lecturer, reader, professor. The staff thresholds are:
|
Subject ranking |
Proportion of academic staff in that subject |
Absolute number of academic staff in that subject |
|
Arts and Humanities |
5% |
50 |
|
Business and Economics |
5% |
50 |
|
Computer Science |
1% |
20 |
|
Education Studies |
1% |
20 |
|
Engineering |
4% |
40 |
|
Law |
1% |
20 |
|
Life Sciences |
5% |
50 |
|
Medical and Health |
5% |
50 |
|
Physical Sciences |
5% |
50 |
|
Psychology |
1% |
20 |
|
Social Sciences |
4% |
40 |
How the rankings support decision-making
For students and academics
-
Identify the top universities in specific fields
-
Understand the focus areas of each institution
For universities
- Benchmark performance against global standards
- Highlight strengths to attract international students and partnerships
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