US universities lead on 35 subjects, Chinese lead on 11

Universities from the United States take top positions in 35 subjects, while Chinese universities dominate 11 subjects in the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects or GRAS 2019, released on 26 June by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, publishers of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).

This release contains rankings of universities in 54 subjects across natural sciences, engineering, life sciences, medical sciences and social sciences. In total, more than 4,000 universities were ranked.

The best performing institution is Harvard University, taking 14 top positions, seven of which are from social sciences subjects, three from medical sciences, two from life sciences, and two from engineering. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology tops five subjects, four of which are engineering subjects.

Other universities that top more than one subject ranking include the University of Pennsylvania and University of Colorado Boulder from the United States and Nanyang Technological University from Singapore.

More than 1,700 universities from 86 countries and regions are published in this release and are presented on the league table for a total of 19,191 times. Universities from the United States appear 4,808 times, followed by Chinese universities (2,451 times) and universities from the United Kingdom (1,554 times).

The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, University of British Columbia, McGill University and the University of New South Wales are presented on the league table in 52 subjects, more than any other universities.

‘Transparent methodology’

The subject rankings maintain the use of transparent methodology and third-party data, the publishers say.

Ranking indicators include measures of research productivity, research quality, extent of international collaboration, research with top quality, and the highest academic recognitions.

The bibliometric data are from Web of Science and the InCites database produced by Clarivate Analytics.

Academic award is a featured indicator of ShanghaiRanking’s global rankings. In GRAS 2019, 26 awards identified by professors from the world’s top 100 universities through the Academic Excellence Survey are used, which cover 23 ranked subjects.

To be included in a subject ranking, the universities needed to have a minimum number of research publications during the period of 2013-17. The publication threshold is different for different subjects.