ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2024
ShanghaiRanking Consultancy has announced the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) 2024, representing one of the most comprehensive and objective ranking of world universities by subjects. This year league table contains rankings of universities in 55 subjects across Natural Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences. More than 1,900 universities across 96 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 solidify their top positions in 29 subjects. Harvard University stands out as the best-performing institution, earning a total of 14 crowns: 5 in Social Sciences, 4 in Medical Sciences, 2 in Life Sciences, 2 in Engineering, and 1 in Natural Sciences. MIT tops in 4 subjects, 3 of which are Engineering subjects and 1 in Natural Sciences. Tsinghua University from China leads in 3 subjects, while Princeton University and the University of Chicago from the United States, along with the University of Oxford from the United Kingdom, each have 2 subjects ranked No. 1 in the world.
The Top One Universities in 55 Subject Rankings
By counting the number of times of all subjects appear in the league table, the corresponding universities from the United States appear 4,277 times, followed by Chinese universities (3,278 times) and universities from the United Kingdom (1,560 times). Zhejiang University, the National University of Singapore, and Sun Yat-sen University are presented in more than 50 subjects in the league table.
GRAS 2024 uses a range of objective academic indicators and third-party data to measure the performance of world universities in relevant subjects, covering 5 major evaluation categories. A brand new category, World-Class Faculty, has been introduced to reflect the concentration of top tier scholars. This category includes four new indicators: International Academic Award Laureates (Laureate), Highly Cited Researchers (HCR), Chief Editors of International Academic Journals (Editor), and International Academic Organization Leadership (Leadership). Beyond the new category, GRAS 2024 also retains traditional indicators across categories like World-Class Output, High Quality Research, Research Impact and International Collaboration.
2024 ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects — Ranking Indicators
| Category | Indicator | Definition |
| World-Class Faculty | Laureate | The number of full-time faculty members at an institution who have received significant awards in an Academic Subject |
| World-Class Faculty | HCR | The number of faculty members at an institution recognized as Highly Cited Researchers in an Academic Subject |
| World-Class Faculty | Editor | The number of faculty members at an institution currently serving as chief editors of international journals in an Academic Subject |
| World-Class Faculty | Leadership | The number of faculty members at an institution holding leadership and senior executive positions in key international academic organizations in an Academic Subject |
| World-Class Output | TJ | The number of papers published in top journals and conferences in an Academic Subject |
| World-Class Output | Award | The number of staff at an institution (by affiliation) who have won significant awards in an Academic Subject |
| High Quality Research | Q1 | The number of papers published in Q1 Journal Impact Factor Quartile in an Academic Subject |
| Research Impact | CNCI | Category Normalized Citation Impact to measure the average impact of papers published by an institution in an Academic Subject |
| International Collaboration | IC | The percentage of internationally co-authored papers published by an institution in an Academic Subject |
In GRAS 2024, the index of international academic awards is based on Academic Excellence Survey (AES) conducted by ShanghaiRanking. Until April 2024, 1,543 professors from world top 100 universities have participated in the survey. They are from 122 universities and 21 countries/regions, covering 64 subjects. Their responses have revealed 170 top journals in 46 subjects, 46 top awards in 32 subjects, 26 top conferences for Computer Science & Engineering, and 22 key international organizations in 17 subjects. ShanghaiRanking wants to express our great gratitude to the scholars who have completed the survey for their significant contribution to building the criteria of academic excellence.
The detailed methodology and full results of ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2024 can be viewed on our official websitewww.shanghairanking.com.
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.
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