‘Big Four’ study destinations see fall in subject rankings

While still heavily dominated by universities from the United States and the United Kingdom, there has been a notable decline in the performance of the traditional ‘Big Four’ study destinations – the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia – as reflected in the recently released QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024.

“The United States experienced a decline of 23% in its overall performance while the United Kingdom and Canada have both had their performance diminish by 8%, and Australia's decreased by less than 5%,” said Simona Bizzozero, the communications director of rankings publisher QS Quacquarelli Symonds.

Despite a decline in overall performance, the subject rankings, released on 10 April, were still heavily dominated by universities from the United States and the United Kingdom.

US universities led in 32 subjects with Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology being the world’s strongest-performing institutions, each leading the rankings in 19 and 11 disciplines, respectively.

UK universities took the second position, leading in 16 subjects, with the University of Oxford leading in four. The University of Cambridge, University College London, Royal College of Art, and Royal College of Music led in two subjects each, while four other universities – the University of Sussex, Loughborough University, University of Sheffield and Royal Veterinary College – led in a subject each.

The ranking analysed more than 16,000 university programmes at 1,500 universities in 96 countries and territories across 55 academic disciplines.

It is divided into five broad disciplinary categories that are: arts and humanities, engineering and technology, life sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences and management.

In those five thematic categories, some six universities – Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford University, and University of California at Berkeley – tended to swap the top five positions among themselves.

Alternative institutions of excellence

But that scenario was quite different when it came to looking at datasets of specific subjects. Results highlighted learning destinations that were performing much better in some academic fields than the traditionally acclaimed top centres of excellence such as Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Cambridge and Stanford.

For instance, the top four universities in communication and media studies in order of merit were the University of Amsterdam, the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of Southern California, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

The top four universities in dentistry were the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (United States), the Academic Centre for Dentistry in Amsterdam, the University of Hong Kong, and Tokyo Medical and Dental University. The top four universities in veterinary science included the Royal Veterinary College of the University of London, University of California at Davis, Cornell University (United States) and Vetsuisse Faculty Bern-Zurich in Switzerland.

Similarly, top universities in sports-related studies were Loughborough University (UK), the University of Queensland (Australia), the University of British Columbia (Canada), the University of Sydney (Australia), and the University of Toronto (Canada).

Explaining some other interesting findings in the current rankings, Bizzozero noted that UK universities earned 1,569 places across 55 subjects, which was 42 more than in the previous edition.

“That performance represented a significant number of high quality placements, with the UK boasting the world’s highest concentration of subject listings in the top three globally,” said Bizzozero.

Quality not quantity

However, Switzerland’s higher education system, according to the QS Quacquarelli Symonds educational researchers, has also been rising in terms of quality, as its universities clinched four first positions in the subject rankings. Three of those were earned by ETH Zurich – the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – in earth and marine sciences, geology and geophysics, effectively making it continental Europe’s strongest institution.

Switzerland’s fourth first position was earned in hospitality by the EHL Hospitality Business School in Lausanne, formerly Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne.

Although Swiss universities had fewer listings in comparison to the larger higher education systems of some countries, according to Bizzozero, Switzerland has the highest proportion of the world’s leading universities within its higher education sector, proof of the elite academic offerings, despite significantly fewer institutions.

Universities in Singapore also appeared to have concentrated on academic excellence as they showed a remarkable distribution of top 10, top 20 and top 50 placements in the rankings. The best-performing university in Singapore was the National University of Singapore which held second and fourth positions globally in history of art and structural engineering respectively.

“Some smaller higher education systems boasted a sheer concentration of academic excellence, with Switzerland, Singapore, the Netherlands and Hong Kong being key examples,” said Bizzozero.

Whereas Australia slipped overall in the rankings, its two leading institutions – the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney – had the world’s most top-100 subject placements by getting 53 and 52 positions respectively, which was a no mean feat as only 55 subjects were assessed.

New evidence also emerged in the European Union rankings, which showed that although Germany with 60 universities had the highest number of universities in the region, it was surpassed in performance by the Netherlands and Italy. Datasets provided by QS Quacquarelli Symonds showed that the Netherlands led in two subject areas and Italy in one.

“Both countries also secured a higher number of universities within the top 10 and top 20 positions compared to Germany,” said Bizzozero.

What is emerging is that academic excellence is not being confined to specific regions but is slowly becoming globally distributed, an indicator that in the future international students might shift their destination preferences to rising centres of academic excellence.

Enhanced quality in China

On the performance of universities in China, Bizzozero noted that although universities secured top 10 positions in only eight subjects, they were already established among the global academic elite. Over the past two decades, China’s universities have experienced remarkable growth in research output, at some points surpassing that of the United States in sheer productivity.

That surge reflects not just an increase in quantity but also a concerted effort towards enhancing quality. However, the challenge is to navigate the shift from prioritising rapid growth to focusing on achieving sustained high quality outputs. As Bizzozero pointed out, it is likely that the success of such a transition will finally determine China’s ability to challenge the top traditional universities on the global stage.

Having 101 universities, China was the third most represented country in the rankings under review after the US (213) and the UK (108). Tsinghua University was its best-performing institution, and was in fifth and sixth positions in history of art and structural engineering respectively.

Progress was also noted in France, where universities formed the most internationally collaborative research hub, with 23 entries among the top 10 for the international research network indicator.

In Latin America, Brazil was the most represented country as well as holding the most top 100 positions in the sub-region. The best-performing university in Brazil and the sub-region was the University of Sao Paulo whose best ranking position was 13th globally in dentistry.

Mexican universities attained four top 20 subject rankings, the highest number for any country in the subregion. Three of those positions were obtained by the National Autonomous University of Mexico, or Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, in anthropology, modern languages and history of art. The fourth was in marketing and was earned by Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (Tecnologico de Monterrey).

India’s ranked entries and overall performance soared by 19% and 17%, respectively, while Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals provided the Arab region with the highest-ranked disciplines: petroleum engineering (5th) and mineral and mining engineering (8th).

Methodology

The QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024 were anchored in a methodology based on five indicators: academic reputation, employer reputation, research citations per paper, h-index and international research network.

In academic reputation, the rankings’ researchers obtained expert opinions from 144,000 university faculty members. The indicator shows which universities other academics consider to be excellent for research in a given area.

For employer reputation, the rankings considered the opinions of 98,000 hiring managers, human resources experts and talent managers. According to the methodology briefing, employers are asked to identify institutions they consider excellent for the recruitment of graduates, and they are also asked to identify the disciplines from which they prefer to recruit graduates.

The research publications metric, which is primarily sourced from the Elsevier-Scopus database, is set for each subject to avoid potential anomalies stemming from small numbers of highly cited papers.

“Both the minimum publications threshold and the weighting applied to the citations indicator are adapted to reflect prevalent publication and citation patterns in a given discipline,” states the methodology briefing.

Subsequently, the researchers used the h-index to measure both the productivity and impact of an academic or department at a university. This indicator is based on a set of the academics’ most cited papers and the number of citations they have received in other publications.

The international research network (IRN Index metric) is intended to establish an institution's ability to establish sustainable research partnerships with other higher education institutions.

Support for universities is critical

QS Senior Vice-President Ben Sowter said in a press release: “With rising global inflation, geo-political instability and general elections in 50+ countries, supporting higher education and international student mobility has never been more critical as it drives innovation and societal advancement.

“QS’ largest ever-university comparative analysis highlights the importance of diversity, research partnerships, investment, and cross-border academic and industry collaborations.”

As Sowter notes, the current rankings are an eye-opener of the challenges that lie ahead in global higher education, as they bring together a complex interplay of economic, geopolitics and environmental factors. Nevertheless, there is an understanding that most of those challenges will require a broad approach that recognises the role of universities in fostering innovation and societal progress.