ShanghaiRanking Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2017: results

ShanghaiRanking has released its league table of academic subjects, ranking universities from all over the world in 52 subject areas

June 28 2017

By Seeta Bhardwa

Email: seeta.bhardwa@timeshighereducation.com

The results of ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2017 have been released, revealing the best universities in 52 different subjects, according to the consultancy. These subjects are spread across five fields – natural sciences, engineering, life sciences, medical sciences and social sciences. In total, more than 4,000 universities across the world were ranked.

Looking for the overall 2017 Shanghai Ranking results? Click here!

US universities take first place 32 times across the 52 subjects, while eight of the top spots are claimed by institutions from China, and five by universities in the Netherlands. The UK takes three of the top positions in geography (University of Oxford), ecology (University of Oxford) and mechanical engineering (University of Cambridge).

Harvard University takes the top spot in 15 subjects – seven within the field of social sciences and four in the field of medical science. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology came top in five subjects, four of those within the field of engineering.

Other universities to rank first more than once were Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Oxford, Delft University of Technology, Wageningen University & Research and Nanyang Technological University.

The ranking was determined by a series of indicators such as the number of papers authored by an institution in an academic subject, international collaboration on papers, and the number of staff winning awards in an academic subject. The full methodology can be found here.

ShanghaiRanking’s top universities in 52 subjects

Fields	Subject	Institution	Country
Natural sciences	Mathematics	Princeton University	US
	Physics	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	US
	Chemistry	University of California, Berkeley	US
	Earth sciences	ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich	Switzerland
	Geography	University of Oxford	UK
	Ecology	University of Oxford	UK
Engineering	Mechanical engineering	University of Cambridge	UK
	Electrical and electronic engineering	University of California, Berkeley	US
	Automation and control	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	US
	Telecommunication engineering	Tsinghua University	China
	Instruments science and technology	Harbin Institute of Technology	China
	Biomedical engineering	Harvard University	US
	Computer science and engineering	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	US
	Civil engineering	Tongji University	China
	Chemical engineering	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	US
	Materials science and engineering	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	US
	Nanoscience and nanotechnology	Nanyang Technological University	Singapore
	Energy science and engineering	Nanyang Technological University	Singapore
	Environmental science and engineering	Stanford University	US
	Water resources	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
	Food Science and technology	Waginengen University & Research	Netherlands
	Biotechnology	Harvard University	US
	Aerospace engineering	Georgia Institute of Technology	US
	Marine/ocean engineering	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
	Transportation science and technology	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
	Remote sensing	Wuhan University	China
	Mining and mineral engineering	University of Science and Technology Beijing	China
	Metallurgical engineering	Central South University	China
Life sciences	Biological sciences	Harvard University	US
	Human biological sciences	Harvard University	US
	Agricultural sciences	Wageningen University & Research	Netherlands
	Veterinary sciences	Ghent University	Belgium
Medical sciences	Clinical medicine	Harvard University	US
	Public health	Harvard University	US
	Dentistry and oral sciences	University of Michigan	US
	Nursing	University of Pennsylvania	US
	Medical technology	Harvard University	US
	Pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences	Harvard University	US
Social sciences	Economics	University of Chicago	US
	Statistics	Harvard University	US
	Law	Harvard University	US
	Political sciences	Harvard University	US
	Sociology	Harvard University	US
	Education	Stanford University	US
	Communication	Ohio State University	US
	Psychology	Harvard University	US
	Business administration	University of Pennsylvania	US
	Finance	New York University	US
	Management	Harvard University	US
	Public administration	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands
	Hospitality and tourism management	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	China-Hong Kong
	Library and information science	Harvard University	US