Times Higher Education (THE) has today released the results of the THE World University Rankings 2023 by subject with the UK and Saudi Arabia making gains, while the US experiences a number of drops at the top of the tables. The UK’s King’s College London joins the top 10 in Clinical and health, and in Psychology. In Computer science, Saudi Arabia now has five universities in the top 300, up from two last year.
Meanwhile, in the US, Johns Hopkins University has fallen out of the top 10 in Clinical and health to 11th place, down from joint ninth last year, and in Engineering, the US has nine fewer universities in the top 300, 76 down from 85. This US trend mirrors what happened in the World University Rankings 2023, released earlier this month, where, despite still dominating the table in terms of overall representation, the US had some siginificant falls.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2023 by subject is compiled from data taken from the THE World University Rankings 2023. The subject tables employ the same range of 13 performance indicators used in the overall World University Rankings 2023, brought together with scores provided under five categories. However, the overall methodology is carefully recalibrated for each subject, with the weightings changed to suit the individual fields.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings provide a rigorous overview of a university’s quality, drawing on an analysis of 15.5 million research publications and 121 million citations to those publications, plus over 40,000 responses to an annual academic reputation survey and hundreds of thousands of additional data points covering a university’s teaching environment, international outlook and industry links. A record number of 1,799 universities from 104 countries and regions are included in the World Rankings this year.
Scroll down for top 10 tables for each subject ranking and links to full results tables and methodologies.
Phil Baty, Chief Knowledge Officer, Times Higher Education, commented:
“The THE World University Rankings by Subject provide further evidence of a clear trend we saw in the overall World Rankings earlier this month: the traditional dominance of the US in world higher education and research is waning. It has been widely pointed out that federal spending on Research and Development in the US, as a proportion of total spending, is at a seven-decade low and we have witnessed worrying de-funding of America’s great state universities around the nation. It looks like this is all starting to take its toll on the US’ global competitiveness in research and innovation.
“Meanwhile, East Asian nations, led by China, and countries in the Middle East, led by Saudi Arabia, continue to strengthen in key areas. A stand-out winner emerging from our new data release is Saudi Arabia – its improvements in key strategic subject areas, including Computer Science, Engineering and Physical Sciences is particularly noteworthy, as a national commitment to invest in research and education as part of the national strategic Vision2030 starts to really pay off.
“The THE World University Rankings by Subject are based on the same 13 rigorous and balanced performance indicators as the overall World University Rankings – giving rich data insights into a university’s teaching, research, interactions with industry and its international competitiveness – but for each of the 11 separate subject areas, the methodology has been carefully recalibrated with different weightings to reflect the different characteristics of the subject area.”
THE World University Rankings 2023 by subject: Arts and humanities top 10
| Institution | Country | 2023 Rank | 2022 Rank |
| Stanford University | United States | 1 | 1 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | United States | 2 | 2 |
| University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 3 | 3 |
| University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 4 | 4 |
| Harvard University | United States | 5 | 6 |
| UCL | United Kingdom | 6 | 5 |
| Princeton University | United States | 7 | 7 |
| University of California, Berkeley | United States | 8 | 9 |
| University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom | 9 | 10 |
| The University of Chicago | United States | 10 | 8 |
- Hong Kong Polytechnic University enters the top 100 in 73rd place, up from group band 101-125
- The US and the UK are the only two countries represented in the top 10
- Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand joins the top 175 in group band 151-175, up from 201-250
- US representation in the top 300 has decreased with 61 universities ranked, down from 67
View the full ranking of the THE World University Rankings 2023 by subject: Arts and humanities
View the THE World University Rankings 2023 by subject: Arts and humanities methodology
THE World University Rankings 2023 by subject: Business and economics top 10
| Institution | Country | 2023 Rank | 2022 Ranks |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | United States | 1 | =1 |
| Stanford University | United States | 2 | =1 |
| University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 3 | 4 |
| Harvard University | United States | 4 | 5 |
| The University of Chicago | United States | 5 | 7 |
| University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 6 | 3 |
| University of California, Berkeley | United States | 7 | 6 |
| Tsinghua University | China | 8 | 11 |
| Yale University | United States | 9 | 8 |
| London School of Economics and Political Science | United Kingdom | 10 | 9 |
China rises to the top 10 for the first time as Tsinghua university climbs to 8th place from 11th
- China is now the third most represented country in the top 300
- Duke University in the US drops out of the top 10 to 17th place, down from 10th
- King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia climbs into the top 100 in joint 63rd place, up from group band 126-150
View the full ranking of the THE World University Rankings 2023 by subject: Business and economics
View the THE World University Rankings 2023 by subject: Business and economics methodology
THE World University Rankings 2023 by subject: Clinical and health top 10
| Institution | Country | 2023 Rank | 2022 Rank |
| University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 1 | 1 |
| University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 2 | 4 |
| Harvard University | United States | 3 | 2 |
| Imperial College London | United Kingdom | 4 | 4 |
| Tsinghua University | China | 5 | 7 |
| Stanford University | United States | 6 | 6 |
| University of Toronto | Canada | 7 | 5 |
| UCL | United Kingdom | 8 | 8 |
| Yale University | United States | 9 | =9 |
| King’s College London | United Kingdom | 10 | 12 |
- The UK’s King’s College London re-joins the top 10 in 10th place, up from 12th
- Johns Hopkins University in the US drops out of the top 10 into 11th place, down from joint 9th
- The UK takes five of the top 10 spots, up from four last year
- Iran has five universities ranked in the top 300, up from one last year
- Italy has nine universities ranked in the top 300, up from six
View the full ranking of the THE World University Rankings 2023 by subject: Clinical and health
View the THE World University Rankings 2023 by subject: Clinical and health methodology
THE World University Rankings 2023 by subject: Computer science top 10
| Institution | Country | 2023 Rank | 2022 Rank |
| University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 1 | 1 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | United States | 2 | 3 |
| Stanford University | United States | 3 | 2 |
| ETH Zurich | Switzerland | 4 | =4 |
| Carnegie Mellon University | United States | 5 | 6 |
| University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 6 | =4 |
| National University of Singapore | Singapore | 7 | =8 |
| University of California, Berkeley |
