Here are the world’s top universities for these 54 subjects

Study International Staff

03 Jul 2019

Here are the world's top universities for these 54 subjects — Source: Shutterstock

As the only global league table to originate from Asia, the annual publication by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy is often praised for the objectivity, stability and transparency of its methodology.

Its annual Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) 2019 was recently released, ranking approximately 4,000 universities according to these subject areas: Natural Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences and Social Sciences. In total, 54 subjects under these broad areas of study were listed.

American universities dominated, topping the tables in 35 subjects and appearing 4,808 times. China took top position in 11 subjects and its universities had the second highest number of appearances (2451 times), ahead of the UK (1554 appearances). In 10 engineering subjects, Chinese universities claimed the top position.

Speaking to Asia Times, Deputy Director of the Institute of Science and Technology Management of Zhejiang University Science and Education Strategy Institute, Lin Chenghua, said there was a huge gap in the superiority of the US which reflected China’s structural shortcomings.

While maintaining and promoting a competitive edge in engineering, China should increase investment in other courses such as Natural Science and Social Sciences, Chenghua explained.

Four universities appear in 52 research disciplines – University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, University of British Columbia, McGill University and the University of New South Wales (UNSW). No other universities surpassed this figure.

Great news – the subjects of Finance and Management have been ranked first in Australia in the @ShanghaiRanking‘s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (ARWU) 2019. https://t.co/wtzBH5DLZc pic.twitter.com/D47lPpvIEu

— UNSW Business School (@UNSWbusiness) June 27, 2019

UNSW scored the most subjects (13) ranked first in Australia for the second consecutive year. It was also listed as having the most number of subjects ranked for the third year in a row.

UNSW Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Nicholas Fisk, said: “Today’s results in these prestigious rankings underscore the breadth, depth and consistency of UNSW research across almost the whole range of disciplines. Off the back of recent success in various national and international rankings, this supports UNSW not only as a leader in research quality and impact, but also for our research reach.”

But the university with the best performance was Harvard, which placed first in 14 subjects – seven of which are social science subjects, three from medical sciences, two from life sciences and two from engineering. It’s followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with five top positions, four of which fall within engineering.

Fields	Subject	Institution Name	Country/Region
Natural Sciences	Mathematics	Princeton University	USA
	Physics	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	USA
	Chemistry	University of California, Berkeley	USA
	Earth Sciences	University of Colorado at Boulder	USA
	Geography	University of Oxford	UK
	Ecology	University of Montpellier	France
	Oceanography	University of Washington	USA
	Atmospheric Science	University of Colorado at Boulder	USA
Engineering	Mechanical Engineering	University of Cambridge	UK
	Electrical & Electronic Engineering	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	USA
	Automation & Control	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	USA
	Telecommunication Engineering	Tsinghua University	China
	Instruments Science & Technology	Harbin Institute of Technology	China
	Biomedical Engineering	Harvard University	USA
	Computer Science & Engineering	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	USA
	Civil Engineering	Tongji University	China
	Chemical Engineering	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	USA
	Materials Science & Engineering	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	USA
	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Nanyang Technological University	Singapore
	Energy Science & Engineering	Nanyang Technological University	Singapore
	Environmental Science & Engineering	Stanford University	USA
	Water Resources	University of Arizona	USA
	Food Science & Technology	Jiangnan University	China
	Biotechnology	Harvard University	USA
	Aerospace Engineering	Beihang University	China
	Marine/Ocean Engineering	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
	Transportation Science & Technology	Beijing Jiaotong University	China
	Remote Sensing	Wuhan University	China
	Mining & Mineral Engineering	Central South University	China
	Metallurgical Engineering	University of Science and Technology Beijing	China
Life Sciences	Biological Sciences	Harvard University	USA
	Human Biological Sciences	Harvard University	USA
	Agricultural Sciences	University of Wageningen	Netherlands
	Veterinary Sciences	Ghent University	Belgium
	Clinical Medicine	University of California, San Francisco	USA
	Public Health	Harvard University	USA
	Dentistry & Oral Sciences	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	USA
	Nursing	University of Pennsylvania	USA
	Medical Technology	Harvard University	USA
	Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences	Harvard University	USA
Social Sciences	Economics	University of Chicago	USA
	Statistics	Harvard University	USA
	Law	Harvard University	USA
	Political Sciences	Harvard University	USA
	Sociology	Harvard University	USA
	Education	Michigan State University	USA
	Communication	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
	Psychology	Harvard University	USA
	Business Administration	University of Pennsylvania	USA
	Finance	New York University	USA
	Management	Harvard University	USA
	Public Administration	Indiana University Bloomington	USA
	Hospitality & Tourism Management	The Hong Kong Polytechnic University	China-Hong Kong
	Library & Information Science	Harvard University	USA

The GRAS 2019 ranked universities based on several measures, including research productivity, research quality, extent of international collaboration, research and the highest academic recognitions.