It is time to get more insights into how well or not too well particular universities are teaching particular courses as QS World University Ranking releases its 2023 Subject Ranking. It is not all academics that put much premium on the ranking phenomenon but the subject ranking dimension as different from the overall ranking tends to be well regarded because it is, to a great extent, a mapping of where the leading authorities are located in the universities across the world.
That is why, left to some critics, the Subject Ranking is the only form of ranking that makes sense. To overstretch the logic, there is no point going to Cambridge to study Discourse Analysis when Chantal Mouffe is there at the University of Westminster or when the Essex School of Discourse Analysis at the University of Essex is where the typical recruiters start from when looking for a specialist in that area. This would be a plausible and justified argument in the case of the UK, for example.
According a statement on this year’s Subject Ranking by QS, over 1,500 institutions across 54 different subjects, grouped into five faculty (broad subject) areas are involved in the 13th edition of the exercise. Its sense of the most notable features of the QS World University Rankings by Subject for 2024 are:
- Six of the 10 most improved programmes are hosted by institutions in the Arab Region: Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Qatar and Jordan.
- Three new subjects have been evaluated: Data Science, Art History and Marketing.
- US institutions lead in an impressive 32 subjects. Among the top-performing institutions, Harvard University ranks first across 14 subjects – two more than last year’s results.
- The University of Oxford dominated four of the top 15 subject tables including ‘Anatomy and Physiology’, ‘Anthropology’ and ‘English language and Literature’ – while the University of Cambridge dominated two: ‘Archaeology’ and ‘Modern Languages’.
- The H-index (a metric that measures both the science productivity and impact of published work from an institution) ranks Australia fourth among the most impactful research locations worldwide.
The statement quotes Ben Sowter, QS Senior Vice President, as saying that “This subject ranking is the largest ever and provides an ever-deeper understanding of how rankings success is achieved. Sustained targeted investment and international collaboration are consistently pillars on which progress can be made. Meanwhile, improving relationships with industry correlates with better employment, research, and innovation outcomes”
In this extract, Intervention shows the first 105 leading universities when it comes to the Social Sciences in the 2023 QS Subject Ranking. It doesn’t show that those outside this bracket do not have what it takes. It means that these are the flashpoints of advances in the study of the social sciences as a knowledge hub. What that means for a prospective student, for instance, is that, barring other considerations, these are where those who want to break new rounds may struggle to nestle.
Critical observers of the list are likely to be surprised by the early presence of Latin American universities on the list. Beyond the early appearance on the list, they are there throughout, from Brazil to Mexico, (yea, we can take Mexico from North to Latin America in this case). It shows the strength of social sciences in that part of the world within the global whole. This is particularly interesting because it tends to correspond to the powerful impact of Decoloniality which can be argued to have a Latin American character.
There is no university from Africa on the list but there are about two from the Middle East.
Other than these minor features, it is still the United States, UK, China, Australia and a few other European countries that still control much of global knowledge production.
Intervention will keep taking different aspects of the ranking, especially the way individual universities are celebrating it and the other subject hubs such as the Humanities, Engineering, Medicine and so on.
1
Cambridge,United States
98.2
2
Oxford,United Kingdom
93.5
3
Stanford,United States
92.8
4
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Cambridge,United States
92.3
5
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
London,United Kingdom
91.9
6
Cambridge,United Kingdom
91.7
7
University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
Berkeley,United States
89.4
8
New Haven,United States
88.2
9
Chicago,United States
87.9
10
New York City,United States
86.6
11
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Los Angeles,United States
86.2
12
Philadelphia,United States
85.8
13
New York City,United States
85.2
14
Milan,Italy
84.1
=15
Princeton,United States
83.9
=15
Toronto,Canada
83.9
17
University of British Columbia
Vancouver,Canada
83.2
18
National University of Singapore (NUS)
Singapore,Singapore
83.1
19
Beijing,China (Mainland)
82.2
20
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor,United States
82
=21
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC)
Santiago,Chile
81.8
=21
London,United Kingdom
81.8
=23
London,United Kingdom
81
=23
Evanston,United States
81
=25
Parkville,Australia
80.9
=25
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
Mexico City,Mexico
80.9
27
Ithaca,United States
80.8
28
Beijing,China (Mainland)
80.6
=29
Hong Kong,Hong Kong SAR
80.2
=29
Amsterdam,Netherlands
80.2
=31
Abu Dhabi,United Arab Emirates
79.9
=31
Manchester,United Kingdom
79.9
33
Tokyo,Japan
79.6
34
Seoul,South Korea
79.2
35
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore)
Singapore,Singapore
79
36
Australian National University (ANU)
Canberra,Australia
78.9
=37
Monterrey,Mexico
5+QS Stars
78.8
=37
The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney)
Sydney,Australia
78.8
39
Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA)
Buenos Aires,Argentina
78.6
=40
Durham,United States
78.5
=40
Coventry,United Kingdom
78.5
=42
London,United Kingdom
78.2
=42
Montreal,Canada
78.2
44
Shanghai,China (Mainland)
78.1
=45
Sydney,Australia
78
=45
São Paulo,Brazil
78
=45
Austin,United States
78
48
Rotterdam,Netherlands
77.8
49
Melbourne,Australia
77.5
50
Edinburgh,United Kingdom
77.1
51
HEC Paris School of Management
Paris,France
77
52
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)
Hong Kong SAR,Hong Kong SAR
76.9
53
Seoul,South Korea
76.5
54
Santiago,Chile
76.4
=55
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Hong Kong SAR,Hong Kong SAR
76.3
=55
Pamplona,Spain
76.3
=57
London,United Kingdom
76.2
=57
Shanghai,China (Mainland)
76.2
59
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Paris,France
76
60
Lomonosov Moscow State University
Moscow,Russia
75.9
61
Seoul,South Korea
75.7
=62
King Abdulaziz University (KAU)
Jeddah,Saudi Arabia
75.6
=62
Brisbane City,Australia
75.6
64
Boston,United States
75.4
65
Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna
Bologna,Italy
75.3
66
Bogotá,Colombia
75.2
67
University Park,United States
75.1
=68
Moscow,Russia
75
=68
Leuven,Belgium
75
=68
East Lansing,United States
75
71
Zürich,Switzerland
74.9
72
Hangzhou,China (Mainland)
74.7
73
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison,United States
74.6
74
Dijon,France
74.4
=75
National Taiwan University (NTU)
Taipei City,Taiwan
74.3
=75
Auckland,New Zealand
74.3
=77
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Hong Kong SAR,Hong Kong SAR
74.1
=77
Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia
5QS Stars
74.1
79
Paris,France
73.9
=80
Complutense University of Madrid
Madrid,Spain
73.8
=80
Frederiksberg,Denmark
73.8
82
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Berlin,Germany
73.7
83
Leeds,United Kingdom
73.5
84
Seattle,United States
73.4
85
Kyoto,Japan
73.3
=86
Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona)
Barcelona,Spain
73.2
=86
University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
San Diego,United States
73.2
=88
Rome,Italy
73.1
=88
University of Southern California
Los Angeles,United States
73.1
=90
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign,United States
73
=90
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Minneapolis,United States
73
=92
Pittsburgh,United States
72.9
=92
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M)
Madrid,Spain
72.9
94
Tilburg,Netherlands
72.7
=95
Columbus,United States
72.6
=95
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Barcelona,Spain
72.6
=95
Tokyo,Japan
72.6
98
Glasgow,United Kingdom
5+QS Stars
72.5
99
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Munich,Germany
72.4
=100
Renmin (People’s) University of China
Beijing,China (Mainland)
72.3
=100
Barcelona,Spain
72.3
=102
Durham,United Kingdom
72.2
=102
Copenhagen,Denmark
72.2
=102
Utrecht,Netherlands
72.2
105
Washington D.C.,United States
72
