Academic Ranking of World Universities

ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2020 Press Release

Monday, June 29, 2020
Shanghai, People's Republic of China

Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) 2020 is released today by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. ShanghaiRanking began to publish Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) by academic subjects since 2009. This release contains rankings of universities in 54 subjects across Natural Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences. In total, more than 4000 universities were ranked.

The NO.1 universities ranked in each subject are shown below. Universities from the United States take top positions in 31 subjects, Chinese universities dominate 11 subjects. The best performing institution is Harvard University, taking 14 crowns, 5 of which are from Social Sciences subjects, 4 from Medical Sciences, 3 from Engineering, and 2 from Life Sciences. MIT tops 6 subjects, 5 of which are engineering subjects. Other universities who top more than one subject rankings include University of California, Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania and University of Colorado at Boulder from the United States, Oxford University from the United Kingdom and Nanyang Technological University from Singapore. Paris-Saclay University tops the table of the subject of Mathematics at its first appearance in ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects.

NO. 1 University in 54 subjects

Fields Subject Institution Name Country/Region
Natural Sciences Mathematics Paris-Saclay University France
Physics Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) United States
Chemistry University of California, Berkeley United States
Earth Sciences University of Colorado at Boulder United States
Geography University of Oxford United Kingdom
Ecology University of Oxford United Kingdom
Oceanography University of Washington United States
Atmospheric Science University of Colorado at Boulder United States
Engineering Mechanical Engineering University of Cambridge United Kingdom
Electrical & Electronic Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) United States
Automation & Control Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) United States
Telecommunication Engineering Tsinghua University China
Instruments Science & Technology Harbin Institute of Technology China
Biomedical Engineering Harvard University United States
Computer Science & Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) United States
Civil Engineering Tongji University China
Chemical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) United States
Materials Science & Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) United States
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Nanyang Technological University Singapore
Energy Science & Engineering Nanyang Technological University Singapore
Environmental Science & Engineering Harvard University United States
Water Resources ETH Zurich Switzerland
Food Science & Technology Jiangnan University China
Biotechnology Harvard University United States
Aerospace Engineering Beihang University China
Marine/Ocean Engineering Shanghai Jiao Tong University China
Transportation Science & Technology Beijing Jiaotong University China
Remote Sensing Wuhan University China
Mining & Mineral Engineering Central South University China
Metallurgical Engineering University of Science and Technology Beijing China
Life Sciences Biological Sciences Harvard University United States
Human Biological Sciences Harvard University United States
Agricultural Sciences Wageningen University & Research Netherlands
Veterinary Sciences Ghent University Belgium
Medical Sciences Clinical Medicine Harvard University United States
Public Health Harvard University United States
Dentistry & Oral Sciences University of Michigan-Ann Arbor United States
Nursing University of Pennsylvania United States
Medical Technology Harvard University United States
Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences Harvard University United States
Social Sciences Economics University of Chicago United States
Statistics Harvard University United States
Law Yale University United States
Political Sciences Harvard University United States
Sociology University of California, Berkeley United States
Education Harvard University United States
Communication University of Amsterdam Netherlands
Psychology Harvard University United States
Business Administration University of Pennsylvania United States
Finance New York University United States
Management National University of Singapore Singapore
Public Administration Aarhus University Denmark
Hospitality & Tourism Management The Hong Kong Polytechnic University China-Hong Kong
Library & Information Science Harvard University United States

More than 1800 universities from 90 countries and regions are published in this release and are presented on the league table for a total of 19100 times. Universities from the United States appear 4826 times, followed by Chinese universities (2647 times) and universities from the United Kingdom (1607 times). University of British Columbia, the University of New South Wales, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, The Ohio State University-Columbus, The University of Melbourne and McGill University are presented on the league table in more than 50 subjects.

The subject rankings maintain the use of transparent methodology and third-party data. Ranking indicators include those measures of research quality, extent of international collaboration, research with top quality, and the highest academic recognitions. Academic award is a featured indicator of ShanghaiRanking’s global rankings. In GRAS 2020, 30 awards identified by professors from world’s Top 100 universities through Academic Excellence Survey are used, which cover 25 ranked subjects. The Academic Excellence Survey also generates 151 top journals in 47 subjects, and 22 top academic conferences in Computer Science & Engineering. We would like to take this opportunity to thank those scholars who complete the survey for their significant contribution on building the criteria of academic excellence.

In GRAS 2020, the ‘PUB’ indicator is replaced by the ‘Q1’, defined as the number of papers authored by an institution in an Academic Subject in journals with Q1 Journal Impact Factor Quartile in order to encourage research with high quality.

2020 ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects — Ranking Indicators

Indicator Definition
Q1The number of papers published in Q1 Journal Impact Factor Quartile in an Academic Subject
CNCICategory Normalized Citation Impact from InCites to measure average impact of papers authored by an institution in an Academic Subject
ICThe percentage of internationally co-authored papers authored by an institution in an Academic Subject
TopThe number of papers published in top journals and conferences in an Academic Subject
AwardThe total number of the staff of an institution winning a significant award in an Academic Subject

The detailed methodology and full results of ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2020 can be viewed on our official website www.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.

Website: http://www.ShanghaiRanking.com/
Contact us at pr@shanghairanking.com for queries about the ranking details.