Best universities for arts and humanities degrees 2024

Find the best universities for arts and humanities using Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2024 data

October 26 2023

Person reading book, Best universities for arts and humanities subjects 2016

Top 10 universities in the world for arts and humanities 2024

Scroll down for the full list of best universities in the world for arts and humanities degrees

Arts and humanities rank 2024	Arts and humanities rank 2023	University	Country/region
1	1	Stanford University	United States
2	2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
3	3	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
4	4	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
5	5	Harvard University	United States
6	6	UCL	United Kingdom
7	8	University of California, Berkeley	United States
8	7	Princeton University	United States
9	12	Yale University	United States
=10	10	The University of Chicago	United States
=10	11	Columbia University	United States

Deciding where to study an arts or humanities degree is not easy, with hundreds of options all over the world.

But 691 of the top universities for arts and humanities have been ranked in the Times Higher Education arts and humanities ranking 2024. So where should you go to pursue your arts or humanities major?

About a fifth of the best arts and humanities schools are in the US, but a number of European countries are also well represented in the ranking; the top 100 includes a significant number of British, German and Dutch institutions.

Best universities in Australia for arts and humanities degrees
Best universities in Canada for arts and humanities degrees
Best universities in the UK for arts and humanities degrees
Best universities in the US for arts and humanities degrees

If you’re hoping to study for a humanities degree in Canada or Australia, these countries offer a choice of 26 and 28 universities respectively, and there are more than 60 institutions across Asia.

Times Higher Education’s subject tables are based on the same 18 performance indicators used in the overall World University Rankings 2024. However, the methodology is carefully recalibrated for each subject, with the weightings changed to suit the individual fields. The full methodology can be found here.

Arts and humanities degrees covered in the ranking include history, literature, philosophy, languages and architecture (scroll down for a full list of subjects and what you can do with them).

Top 5 universities for arts and humanities degrees

5. Harvard University

The arts and humanities division at Harvard University consists of 15 departments, four interdisciplinary undergraduate degree programmes and several secondary fields.

Courses available cover a wide range of subjects, including art, music, visual studies, theatre, English and many more. It is also one of the top universities to study law in the US.

The arts and humanities student board is an opportunity for undergraduates to be involved in developing programmes and initiatives for students with the department.

The division organises a student art crawl where students can explore the art galleries on Harvard’s campus.

4. University of Oxford

The humanities division at the University of Oxford includes the faculties of music, history, classics, theology and religion, and English language and literature.

There are about 20,000 students at the university, more than a third of whom are international. Students belong to a college, where undergraduates take the majority of their classes with just a few of their peers and a college tutor.

In line with the British higher education system, students entering Oxford are admitted for a specific course (in contrast to US institutions, where students can take a variety of courses before declaring their major).

It is possible for undergraduates to study joint degrees, such as philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) – a course for which Oxford is particularly well known – and combinations of arts and sciences.

Many writers, actors, composers and other prominent personalities in arts and culture dating back to the 14th century are Oxford graduates, including the novelists J. R. R. Tolkien and Graham Greene and the satirist Jonathan Swift.

3. University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is regularly ranked as a top university across a wide range of subjects.

More than 23,000 students are enrolled at the university across 31 colleges.

The School of Arts and Humanities teaches a variety of subjects, from Asian and Middle Eastern studies to the history of art. Many research projects are collaborative and inform student learning at all levels.

Recent projects have explored flamenco dance and its cultural significance, and an undergraduate scheme used architectural techniques to develop local allotments.

Notable Cambridge alumni in the arts and humanities include the philosopher Bertrand Russell, the artist Quentin Blake and the dramatist Christopher Marlowe.

2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Although it is known as a leading university in science and technology teaching, MIT also provides courses across the arts and humanities.

These include anthropology, history, linguistics, literature, media arts and sciences, and music and theatre arts.

When the School of Architecture and Planning opened in 1868, it had the first department of architecture in the US; today, it is still known for commissioning progressive buildings on campus.

MIT has five libraries, three of which are dedicated to the arts and humanities – the Hayden Library (humanities and sciences), the Lewis Music Library, and the Rotch Library (art, architecture and planning). These libraries contain many notable collections, such as the Lewis’ resources on 20th- and 21st-century music, hip hop and electronic music.

MIT is affiliated with many thought leaders in the arts and humanities, including the linguist Noam Chomsky, who is Institute Professor and professor of linguistics (emeritus) at the university. The institution has produced six Pulitzer winners, and four current or former faculty are members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

1. Stanford University

The School of Humanities and Sciences awards 63 per cent of all Stanford undergraduate degrees and almost 40 per cent of doctorates. Stanford University is also one of the top destinations for law degrees in the US.

When the university was established, the Stanford family said that its aim was to educate “cultured and useful citizens”, and the university still counts its humanities courses as the “soul” of a Stanford education.

Recent achievements in the school include a complex study of race and ethnicity, an online course on classical music appreciation and an award-winning radio show hosted by Stanford philosophy professors.

Stanford is based near Palo Alto, known as Silicon Valley because of its density of high-tech and start-up companies. The spirit of entrepreneurship in the area was encouraged by the university itself in the early 20th century, and many Stanford students and graduates are involved at the highest levels with the world’s most influential technology companies.

Many of the students live in campus residences, near the university’s academic buildings, museums and recreation spaces.

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Best universities for arts and humanities 2024

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2024 profile

Arts and humanities rank 2024	Arts and humanities rank 2023	University	Country/region
1	1	Stanford University	United States
2	2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
3	3	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
4	4	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
5	5	Harvard University	United States
6	6	UCL	United Kingdom
7	8	University of California, Berkeley	United States
8	7	Princeton University	United States
9	12	Yale University	United States
=10	10	The University of Chicago	United States
=10	11	Columbia University	United States
12	9	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
13	15	University of Toronto	Canada
14	14	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
15	13	LMU Munich	Germany
16	=16	New York University	United States
17	=16	University of Pennsylvania	United States
18	20	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
19	24	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany
20	23	King’s College London	United Kingdom
21	22	KU Leuven	Belgium
22	19	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
23	21	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France
24	26	Leiden University	Netherlands
25	28	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
26	27	National University of Singapore	Singapore
27	36	University of Vienna	Austria
28	18	Peking University	China
29	51	Sorbonne University	France
30	29	University of Tübingen	Germany
31	25	Cornell University	United States
32	=31	Free University of Berlin	Germany
33	34	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
34	=37	Tsinghua University	China
=35	=31	Duke University	United States
=35	=37	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom
37	35	Universität Heidelberg	Germany
38	41	University of Melbourne	Australia
39	33	Durham University	United Kingdom
40	39	University of Sydney	Australia
=41	43	Aarhus University	Denmark
=41	45	Johns Hopkins University	United States
=43	42	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
=43	65	Sapienza University of Rome	Italy
45	46	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
47	47	University of Groningen	Netherlands
48	44	McGill University	Canada
49	=69	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
50	40	Australian National University	Australia
51	50	University of York	United Kingdom
52	54	Monash University	Australia
53	57	University of Helsinki	Finland
=54	=67	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
=54	30	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=56	94	University of Bologna	Italy
=56	75	University of Copenhagen	Denmark
=56	=63	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	United States
59	=55	University of Texas at Austin	United States
60	52	The University of Tokyo	Japan
61	=55	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
62	62	University of British Columbia	Canada
63	48	Brown University	United States
64	58	Panthéon-Sorbonne University – Paris 1	France
65	77	University of Oslo	Norway
66	=67	University of Notre Dame	United States
67	90	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
68	49	Rutgers University – New Brunswick	United States
69	=78	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
70	61	Birkbeck, University of London	United Kingdom
=70	=69	University of California, San Diego	United States
=70	66	University of Zurich	Switzerland
72	95	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
73	101–125	University of Massachusetts	United States
74	76	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
75	=83	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
76	=69	University of Freiburg	Germany
=77	=69	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
=77	=63	SOAS University of London	United Kingdom
79	=96	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
80	74	University of Washington	United States
81	85	University of Cologne	Germany
82	101–125	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
83	82	University of California, Santa Barbara	United States
84	80	Ghent University	Belgium
85	=92	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
86	88	Politecnico di Milano	Italy
=87	151–175	University of Barcelona	Spain
=87	101–125	Trinity College Dublin	Ireland
=89	73	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
=89	=83	Lund University	Sweden
=89	89	Northwestern University	United States
92	=78	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
93	126–150	Indiana University	United States
94	101–125	Stockholm University	Sweden
95	126–150	Complutense University of Madrid	Spain
96	101–125	University of California, Irvine	United States
97	=96	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
=98	101–125	University of Geneva	Switzerland
=98	=92	University of Hamburg	Germany
=100	60	Michigan State University	United States
=100	87	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
101–125	126–150	Aalto University	Finland
101–125	100	University of Arizona	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Auckland	New Zealand
101–125	126–150	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
101–125	81	Georgetown University	United States
101–125	151–175	Goethe University Frankfurt	Germany
101–125	126–150	University of Göttingen	Germany
101–125	101–125	Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Israel
101–125	151–175	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
101–125	101–125	Kyoto University	Japan
101–125	101–125	Macquarie University	Australia
101–125	126–150	University of Minnesota	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Montreal	Canada
101–125	101–125	University of Münster	Germany
101–125	101–125	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
101–125	126–150	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
101–125	101–125	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
101–125	101–125	Queen Mary University of London	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	University of Reading	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	University of São Paulo	Brazil
101–125	101–125	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
101–125	98	University of Southern California	United States
101–125	101–125	Tongji University	China
101–125	99	UNSW Sydney	Australia
101–125	101–125	Uppsala University	Sweden
101–125	126–150	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
126–150	126–150	University of Basel	Switzerland
126–150	101–125	University of Bern	Switzerland
126–150	126–150	Boston University	United States
126–150	176–200	University of Campinas	Brazil
126–150	126–150	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
126–150	126–150	Eindhoven University of Technology	Netherlands
126–150	126–150	Emory University	United States
126–150	101–125	Goldsmiths, University of London	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	University of Konstanz	Germany
126–150	86	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
126–150	101–125	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
126–150	151–175	University of Padua	Italy
126–150	101–125	Université Paris Cité	France
126–150	151–175	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
126–150	176–200	Pompeu Fabra University	Spain
126–150	126–150	University of Potsdam	Germany
126–150	126–150	Queen’s University Belfast	United Kingdom
126–150	91	The University of Queensland	Australia
126–150	126–150	Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa	Italy
126–150	101–125	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
126–150	NR	Technical University of Munich	Germany
126–150	126–150	Tilburg University	Netherlands
151–175	201–250	Aix-Marseille University	France
151–175	201–250	University of Alberta	Canada
151–175	151–175	University of Antwerp	Belgium
151–175	126–150	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
151–175	201–250	University of Bonn	Germany
151–175	151–175	University of Bordeaux	France
151–175	201–250	Ca’ Foscari University of Venice	Italy
151–175	126–150	University of California, Davis	United States
151–175	151–175	University of California, Santa Cruz	United States
151–175	201–250	Charles University	Czech Republic
151–175	251–300	University of Coimbra	Portugal
151–175	176–200	École Normale Supérieure de Lyon	France
151–175	201–250	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands
151–175	101–125	Fudan University	China
151–175	151–175	University of Gothenburg	Sweden
151–175	176–200	Heriot-Watt University	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	University of Lausanne	Switzerland
151–175	151–175	University of Leicester	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	Université Libre de Bruxelles	Belgium
151–175	176–200	University of Liverpool	United Kingdom
151–175	176–200	Loughborough University	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	Nanjing University	China
151–175	126–150	National Autonomous University of Mexico	Mexico
151–175	176–200	RMIT University	Australia
151–175	176–200	Technical University of Berlin	Germany
151–175	151–175	Western University	Canada
151–175	176–200	Zhejiang University	China
176–200	151–175	University of Adelaide	Australia
176–200	201–250	Autonomous University of Madrid	Spain
176–200	201–250	University of Cape Town	South Africa
176–200	176–200	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
176–200	251–300	University of East Anglia	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg	Germany
176–200	151–175	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
176–200	251–300	University of Granada	Spain
176–200	151–175	University of Hawai’i at Mānoa	United States
176–200	176–200	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)	South Korea
176–200	201–250	University of Lisbon	Portugal
176–200	201–250	NOVA University of Lisbon	Portugal
176–200	201–250	Université Paris-Saclay	France
176–200	176–200	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
176–200	176–200	Ruhr University Bochum	Germany
176–200	201–250	University of Salamanca	Spain
176–200	151–175	Seoul National University	South Korea
176–200	151–175	Simon Fraser University	Canada
176–200	151–175	University College Dublin	Ireland
176–200	151–175	Victoria University of Wellington	New Zealand
176–200	176–200	Vrije Universiteit Brussel	Belgium
176–200	176–200	Washington University in St Louis	United States
176–200	201–250	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea

Editor’s note: As part of our THE statement on Ukraine published on 2 March 2022, Russian universities have been given less prominence in our rankings. Russian universities that met the criteria for this ranking are not displayed in the table above.

This table was updated in December 2023 to retroactively include Birkbeck, University of London based on their provided data submission. More information on the university's inclusion can be found here