Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University lead Times higher education world university rankings by subject 2025

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University in the United States lead in the

Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings by Subject 2025, released today. Each

university tops three subject rankings.

MIT takes first place in Arts and Humanities, Business and Economics and Social Sciences.

Meanwhile, Stanford University, which was overtaken in the overall World University Rankings 2025

by MIT and pushed down to sixth place from second last year, still rivals the east-coast institution

when it comes to subject performance. Stanford is number one for Education Studies, Law and

Psychology.

Harvard University takes first place in Engineering and Life Sciences, and California Institute of

Technology is number one for Physical Sciences. This means that the US takes nine of the 11 number

one spots in the THE World University Rankings by Subject 2025.

The remaining two subjects, Computer Science and Medical and Health, are led by the University of

Oxford, maintaining long-held top positions for the UK institution. It has topped the Medical and

Health ranking since 2016, and Computer Science since 2019. Oxford, which is the overall THE World

University Rankings 2025 global number one ranked university, is in the top eight across the 10

subject rankings in which it is represented.

The US dominates in the top 10s across all 11 subjects and is the most represented country for each

subject overall as well as in the top 50 for each subject. Stanford, Harvard and Cambridge (in the UK)

universities are the only institutions represented in top 10s across all 11 subjects.

But while the US is top at a global level, China is leading the way for Asia in terms of representation

overall and in top 50s. China has top-10 institutions in Business and Economics, and Education

Studies, and representation in the top 50 for every subject.

In the subjects of Physical Sciences and Engineering, China has the second highest representation of

any country for universities in the top 50s, behind the US. China has six top-50 universities in Physical

Sciences, and six in Engineering.

Peking University reveals its strength in the subject rankings with a best-ever performance in

Business and Economics, rising to fourth place from 10th, and edging closer to the top 10 in

Computer Science, in 12th place up from 16. The university is also newly ranked for Law and goes

straight into the top 20 in 14th place.

Elsewhere, ETH Zurich in Switzerland is the only university in continental Europe to make it into the

top 10s – in Engineering (10th), Computer Science (fourth) and Physical Sciences (ninth). Brazil leads

in Latin America for overall representation with at least 10 universities ranked for each subject, and

in Africa: Egypt and North Africa demonstrate strength in numbers in STEM subjects, while South

Africa has the highest number of ranked universities in the region for Arts and Humanities, Business

and Economics, Education Studies, Law, Psychology and Social Sciences.

Phil Baty, THE’s chief global affairs officer, said: “Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings

are the most balanced, comprehensive and rigorous in the world, using 18 separate performance

indicators to cover the full range of global, research-intensive university activities, including teaching,

research, industry links and international outlook. These 11 separate subject tables complement the

overall world rankings, published last October, to give even richer, trusted insights to a wide range of

users: from students choosing where to study to university leaders’ benchmarking performance to

governments analysing funding and policy decisions.

“While the western world continues to dominate the subject rankings, this new data release

demonstrates the continued rise of China and east Asian nations in the global knowledge economy,

and a global levelling up of excellence.”

Global top 10s for each of the 11 subject ranki

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