ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2021
ShanghaiRanking Consultancy is proudly introducing the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) 2021, representing the most comprehensive and objective ranking of world universities by subjects. This year league table contains rankings of universities in 54 subjects across Natural Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences. More than 1,800 out of 4,000 universities across 93 countries and regions are finally listed in the rankings.
The top one universities ranked in each subject are shown in the table below. Universities from the United States cement their top positions in 30 subjects. Chinese universities raise two more subject to 13 subjects. Harvard University leads the best performing institution, taking 15 crowns, 6 of which are from Social Sciences, 4 from Medical Sciences, 3 from Engineering, and 2 from Life Sciences. MIT tops in 6 subjects, 5 of which are engineering subjects, highlighting its strength in academic performance of this field. It is different from the year before that the number of universities topped in more than one subject declines from 7 to 4, leaving Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Colorado at Boulder from the United States, and the University of Oxford from the United Kingdom hold their positions. Moreover, three new entrants make a brilliant appearance in this year league table, including Southeast University, Xi`an Jiaotong University, and Xidian University from China for their excellent performance in Transportation Science & Technology, Mechanical Engineering, and Telecommunication Engineering, respectively.
The Top One Universities in 54 Subject Rankings
By counting the number of times of all subjects appearing in the league table, the corresponding universities from the United States appear 4782 times, followed by Chinese universities (2895 times) and universities from the United Kingdom (1623 times). University of British Columbia, The University of New South Wales, National University of Singapore, The Ohio State University-Columbus, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, The University of Melbourne, McGill University and University of Toronto are presented in the league table in more than 50 subjects.
The Rankings use a range of objective academic indicators and third-party data to measure the performance of world universities in relevant subjects, including international academic awards, top academic achievements, research quality, and international collaboration. In GRAS 2021, the index of international academic awards is based on Academic Excellence Survey (AES) conducted by ShanghaiRanking. By February 2021, 1122 professors from top world universities have participated in the survey. They are from 95 universities and 17 countries/regions, covering 64 subjects. Their responses have revealed 164 top journals in 48 subjects, 32 top awards in 27 subjects, and 26 top conferences for Computer Science & Engineering. We want to express our great gratitude to the scholars who have completed the survey for their significant contribution to building the criteria of academic excellence.
2019 ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects — Ranking Indicators
The detailed methodology and full results of ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2021 can be viewed on our official website www.shanghairanking.com/rankings/gras/2021.
ShanghaiRanking Consultancy: ShanghaiRanking Consultancy is a fully independent organization dedicating to research on higher education intelligence and consultation. It has been the official publisher of the Academic Ranking of World Universities since 2009.
