Best universities for arts and humanities degrees 2024

Find the best universities for arts and humanities using Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings data

October 28 2020

Person reading book, Best universities for arts and humanities subjects 2016

Deciding where to study an arts or humanities degree is not easy, with hundreds of options all over the world.

But 565 of the top universities for arts and humanities have been ranked in the Times Higher Education arts and humanities ranking 2021. So where should you go to study your arts or humanities major?

About a quarter of the best arts and humanities schools are in the US, but a number of European countries are well represented in the ranking, too; the top 100 includes a significant number of British, German and Dutch institutions.

Best universities worldwide

Best universities in the UK
Best universities in the United States
Best universities in Canada
Best universities in Australia
Best universities in South America
Best universities in France
Best universities in Germany
Best universities in the Netherlands
Best universities in Asia

If you’re hoping to study a humanities degree in Canada or Australia, these countries offer a choice of 25 and 26 universities respectively, and there are more than 40 institutions in the top 500 across Asia.

Times Higher Education subject tables are based on the same 13 performance indicators used in the overall World University Rankings 2021. However, the methodology is carefully recalibrated for each subject, with the weightings changed to suit the individual fields. The full methodology can be found here.

Arts and humanities degrees covered in the ranking include history, literature, philosophy, languages and architecture (scroll down for a full list of subjects and what you can do with them).

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Top 5 universities for arts and humanities degrees

1. Stanford University

When the university was established, the Stanford family said that their aim was to educate “cultured and useful citizens” and the university still counts its humanities courses as the “soul” of a Stanford education.

The School of Humanities and Sciences awards 63 per cent of all Stanford undergraduate degrees and almost 40 per cent of doctorates. Undergraduates are taught by faculty who are pioneers in their fields.

Recent achievements in the school include a complex study of race and ethnicity, an online course on classical music appreciation and an award-winning radio show hosted by Stanford philosophy professors.

Stanford is based next to Palo Alto, known as Silicon Valley because of its density of high-tech and start-up companies. The spirit of entrepreneurship in the area was encouraged by the university itself in the early 20th century, and many Stanford students and graduates are involved at the highest levels with the world’s most influential technology companies.

Many of the students live in campus residences, near the university’s faculty buildings, museums and recreation spaces.

2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Although well known as a leading university in science and technology teaching, the university also provides courses across the arts and humanities.

These include anthropology, history, linguistics, literature, media arts and sciences, and music and theatre arts.

When the School of Architecture and Planning opened in 1868, it had the first department of architecture in the US and is still known for commissioning progressive buildings on campus.

The MIT library system is divided into five libraries, three of which are dedicated to the arts and humanities – Hayden Library (humanities and sciences), Lewis Music Library and Rotch Library (art, architecture and planning). There are many notable collections within these libraries, such as the Lewis’ resources on 20th- and 21st-century music, hip-hop and electronic music.

MIT is affiliated with many thought leaders in the arts and humanities, including linguist Noam Chomsky, who is Institute Professor and professor of linguistics (emeritus) at the university. The institution has produced six Pulitzer winners, and four current or former faculty are members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

3. University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is regularly ranked as a top university across a wide range of subjects. As one of the oldest universities in the world, its colleges and traditions are famous in the UK and beyond.

The university is located about 100km north of London and attracts top scholars and distinguished visitors. More than 23,000 students are enrolled at the university across 31 colleges.

College life is central to the university experience. Undergraduates live in college for at least part of their time at university and are primarily taught by tutors in small groups.

Postgraduates, however, are more loosely affiliated with their college, although many participate in recreational and academic life.

The School of Arts and Humanities teaches a variety of subjects, from Asian and Middle Eastern studies to the history of art. Many research projects are collaborative and inform student learning at all levels.

Recent projects have explored flamenco dance and its cultural significance, and an undergraduate scheme used architectural techniques to develop local allotments.

Notable Cambridge alumni in the arts and humanities include the philosopher Bertrand Russell, artist Quentin Blake and dramatist Christopher Marlowe.

What can you do with arts and humanities degrees?

4. University of Oxford

As one of the world’s most prestigious institutions, the University of Oxford is hugely respected across all disciplines. The humanities division includes the faculties of music, history, classics, theology and religion, and English language and literature.

There are about 20,000 students at the university, more than a third of whom are international. Students belong to a college, where undergraduates take the majority of their classes with just a few of their peers and a college tutor.

In line with the British higher education system, students entering Oxford are admitted for a specific course, in contrast to US institutions, where students can take a variety of courses before declaring their major.

It is possible for undergraduates to study for joint degrees, such as philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) – a course particularly well known at Oxford – and combinations of arts and sciences.

Many writers, actors, composers and other prominent personalities in arts and culture dating back to the 14th century are Oxford graduates, including novelists J. R. R. Tolkien and Graham Greene and satirist Jonathan Swift.

5. UCL

The Faculty of Arts and Humanities at UCL offers students a wide variety of courses, in departments including English language and literature, philosophy, information studies, Greek and Latin, fine art, and Hebrew and Jewish studies.

The faculty also has a strong research output including an innovative digital project around transcribing the work of Jeremy Bentham, whose ideas contributed to the founding of UCL, and an exploration into the histories of the Italian mafias.

Each year, the faculty hosts a Festival of Culture, which is a five-day event of talks, panels, live performances, walking tours, film screenings and exhibitions showcasing the research being undertaken at the university.

Universities by degree subject

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Best universities for arts and humanities 2021

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2021 profile

Arts and humanities Rank 2021	Arts and humanities rank 2020	University	Country/region
1	1	Stanford University	United States
2	4	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
3	2	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
4	3	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
5	6	UCL	United Kingdom
6	5	Harvard University	United States
7	8	The University of Chicago	United States
8	10	University of California, Berkeley	United States
9	7	Princeton University	United States
10	11	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
11	9	Yale University	United States
12	14	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
13	12	Columbia University	United States
14	13	University of Pennsylvania	United States
15	18	University of Toronto	Canada
16	17	New York University	United States
17	15	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
18	16	LMU Munich	Germany
19	27	Durham University	United Kingdom
20	=19	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany
21	28	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom
=22	21	Leiden University	Netherlands
=22	=19	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France
24	34	University of Tübingen	Germany
25	22	KU Leuven	Belgium
26	24	King’s College London	United Kingdom
27	25	Free University of Berlin	Germany
28	23	Peking University	China
29	26	Cornell University	United States
30	37	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
31	42	University of Melbourne	Australia
32	29	Duke University	United States
33	32	Heidelberg University	Germany
34	30	University of Vienna	Austria
35	33	Australian National University	Australia
36	45	McGill University	Canada
37	35	National University of Singapore	Singapore
38	43	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
39	47	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
40	39	Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey	United States
41	36	Johns Hopkins University	United States
42	31	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
43	59	University of Texas at Austin	United States
44	41	University of Sydney	Australia
45	40	University of York	United Kingdom
46	=52	University of British Columbia	Canada
=47	=76	University of Copenhagen	Denmark
=47	38	The University of Tokyo	Japan
49	54	University of Notre Dame	United States
=50	48	Panthéon-Sorbonne University – Paris 1	France
=50	51	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
52	56	University of Freiburg	Germany
53	49	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
54	70	Utrecht University	Netherlands
55	50	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
56	46	Tsinghua University	China
57	55	Brown University	United States
=58	61	University of California, San Diego	United States
=58	=52	Sorbonne University	France
60	44	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
61	66	Sapienza University of Rome	Italy
62	63	University of Helsinki	Finland
63	58	Northwestern University	United States
64	=67	Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Israel
65	NR	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
66	57	SOAS University of London	United Kingdom
67	62	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
68	71	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	United States
69	84	Ghent University	Belgium
70	65	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
71	85	University of Zurich	Switzerland
72	72	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russian Federation
73	=67	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
74	101–125	Monash University	Australia
=75	=92	Aarhus University	Denmark
=75	=74	University of Groningen	Netherlands
=77	60	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
=77	73	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
79	86	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
80	80	University of Arizona	United States
81	=74	Queen Mary University of London	United Kingdom
82	95	University of Oslo	Norway
83	79	University of Washington	United States
84	83	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
85	101–125	University of Bologna	Italy
86	97	University of Hamburg	Germany
87	89	The University of Queensland	Australia
88	91	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
89	81	University of Southern California	United States
=90	100	Macquarie University	Australia
=90	=87	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
92	101–125	University of Auckland	New Zealand
=93	101–125	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
=93	69	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
95	=92	Birkbeck, University of London	United Kingdom
96	=98	Indiana University	United States
97	101–125	Stockholm University	Sweden
=98	82	University of California, Santa Barbara	United States
=98	64	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
100	96	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
101–125	101–125	University of Barcelona	Spain
101–125	101–125	Boston University	United States
101–125	101–125	University of California, Irvine	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Cologne	Germany
101–125	=92	Fudan University	China
101–125	=76	University of Geneva	Switzerland
101–125	=98	Georgetown University	United States
101–125	=87	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
101–125	101–125	Kyoto University	Japan
101–125	90	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
101–125	101–125	Lund University	Sweden
101–125	101–125	University of Massachusetts	United States
101–125	101–125	Michigan State University	United States
101–125	126–150	University of Münster	Germany
101–125	101–125	National Autonomous University of Mexico	Mexico
101–125	101–125	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
101–125	78	Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa	Italy
101–125	101–125	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	Tel Aviv University	Israel
101–125	101–125	Tilburg University	Netherlands
101–125	101–125	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
101–125	101–125	Uppsala University	Sweden
101–125	101–125	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
101–125	126–150	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
126–150	151–175	University of Aberdeen	United Kingdom
126–150	176–200	University of Adelaide	Australia
126–150	151–175	University of Antwerp	Belgium
126–150	151–175	University of Basel	Switzerland
126–150	126–150	University of Bern	Switzerland
126–150	126–150	University of California, Santa Cruz	United States
126–150	101–125	Complutense University of Madrid	Spain
126–150	201–250	Eindhoven University of Technology	Netherlands
126–150	126–150	Emory University	United States
126–150	151–175	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands
126–150	151–175	Goethe University Frankfurt	Germany
126–150	126–150	University of Göttingen	Germany
126–150	151–175	University of Hawai’i at Mānoa	United States
126–150	101–125	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
126–150	126–150	University of Montreal	Canada
126–150	101–125	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
126–150	151–175	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	University of Padua	Italy
126–150	126–150	Pompeu Fabra University	Spain
126–150	126–150	University of Potsdam	Germany
126–150	151–175	University of Reading	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Royal Holloway, University of London	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Technical University of Berlin	Germany
126–150	126–150	UNSW Sydney	Australia
126–150	151–175	University of the Witwatersrand	South Africa
126–150	176–200	University of Wollongong	Australia
126–150	126–150	Zhejiang University	China
151–175	126–150	Aalto University	Finland
151–175	126–150	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
151–175	126–150	Bar-Ilan University	Israel
151–175	176–200	University of California, Davis	United States
151–175	151–175	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
151–175	176–200	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
151–175	126–150	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
151–175	201–250	University of Graz	Austria
151–175	176–200	University of Konstanz	Germany
151–175	126–150	University of Leicester	United Kingdom
151–175	176–200	University of Liverpool	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	Loughborough University	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	University of Minnesota	United States
151–175	126–150	National Taiwan University (NTU)	Taiwan
151–175	151–175	Polytechnic University of Milan	Italy
151–175	151–175	Queen’s University Belfast	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	University of São Paulo	Brazil
151–175	176–200	Seoul National University	South Korea
151–175	151–175	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
151–175	176–200	Simon Fraser University	Canada
151–175	201–250	Tomsk State University	Russian Federation
151–175	151–175	University College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
151–175	151–175	Western Sydney University	Australia
151–175	176–200	York University	Canada
176–200	201–250	University of Alberta	Canada
176–200	176–200	University of Bordeaux	France
176–200	151–175	Boston College	United States
176–200	201–250	University of Campinas	Brazil
176–200	176–200	University of Connecticut	United States
176–200	201–250	Curtin University	Australia
176–200	251–300	Dublin City University	Republic of Ireland
176–200	151–175	University of Fribourg	Switzerland
176–200	101–125	Goldsmiths, University of London	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	University of Gothenburg	Sweden
176–200	251–300	Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz	Germany
176–200	176–200	La Trobe University	Australia
176–200	151–175	University of Lausanne	Switzerland
176–200	126–150	Nanjing University	China
176–200	201–250	National Taiwan Normal University	Taiwan
176–200	126–150	University of Paris	France
176–200	201–250	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
176–200	151–175	Rice University	United States
176–200	201–250	RMIT University	Australia
176–200	201–250	Ruhr University Bochum	Germany
176–200	151–175	University of Sussex	United Kingdom
176–200	201–250	University of Technology Sydney	Australia
176–200	201–250	Washington University in St Louis	United States
176–200	201–250	Western University	Canada