Shanghai Ranking 2016: top universities for social sciences

Academic Ranking of World Universities reveals its top universities for social sciences according to the 2016 subject ranking league tables, known as the ARWU-FIELD rankings

September 7 2016

By Carly Minsky

For the tenth year, Harvard University has come top in ShanghaiRanking’s ARWU-FIELD for Social Sciences 2016.

Almost half of the 200 universities in the ranking are American institutions, and all but four of the top 20 are in the United States.

The UK and Canada also make an appearance in the top 20; the London School of Economics is the highest ranking UK university at position eight and the University of Toronto just makes it in to take the twentieth spot.

Canadian universities perform particularly well in the social sciences ranking, taking 14 places – more than in any of the other four subject rankings.

Similarly, the Netherlands has 11 universities in the social sciences ranking, compared to less than 10 in the other ARWU-FIELD rankings. Many of these Dutch universities teach the majority of both their undergraduate and graduate courses in English, attracting students from all over the world.

Just 11 Asian universities feature in the top 200, and none rank higher than the 76-100 band. But Australia boasts 11 ranked universities for social sciences, with the University of Melbourne in the country’s highest spot at position 35.

More ShanghaiRanking results:

-Academic Ranking of World Universities 2016: main results
-Shanghai subject ranking 2016 overview
-Full results for natural sciences and mathematics
-Full results for life and agriculture sciences
-Full results for clinical medicine and pharmacy
-Full results for engineering, technology and computer sciences

A total of 23 countries are represented in the social sciences ranking, including Finland, Spain, China and South Africa.

ShanghaiRanking Consultancy groups its field rankings into five broad categories. Social sciences includes courses like politics, economics and sociology.

The ranking is based on a number of indicators measuring research excellence at universities, including alumni awards, publications, citations and funding.

Top universities for social sciences: ARWU-FIELD 2016

World Rank	Institution	Country	Region
1	Harvard University	USA	Americas
2	University of Chicago	USA	Americas
3	University of California, Berkeley	USA	Americas
4	Princeton University	USA	Americas
5	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	USA	Americas
6	Columbia University	USA	Americas
7	Stanford University	USA	Americas
8	London School of Economics and Political Science	UK	Europe
9	New York University	USA	Americas
10	University of Oxford	UK	Europe
11	Northwestern University	USA	Americas
12	University of Michigan	USA	Americas
13	University of Pennsylvania	USA	Americas
14	University of Minnesota	USA	Americas
15	Duke University	USA	Americas
16	University of Cambridge	UK	Europe
17	Yale University	USA	Americas
18	Carnegie Mellon University	USA	Americas
19	University of California, Los Angeles	USA	Americas
20	University of Toronto	Canada	Americas
21	University of Texas at Austin	USA	Americas
22	Texas A&M University	USA	Americas
23	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	USA	Americas
24	Cornell University	USA	Americas
25	Ohio State University	USA	Americas
26	University of Washington	USA	Americas
27	University of California, San Diego	USA	Americas
27	Washington University in St Louis	USA	Americas
29	Pennsylvania State University	USA	Americas
30	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands	Europe
31	Arizona State University	USA	Americas
32	KU Leuven	Belgium	Europe
32	VU University Amsterdam	Netherlands	Europe
34	University of Maryland, College Park	USA	Americas
35	University of Melbourne	Australia	Asia/Pacific
36	University of Southern California	USA	Americas
37	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	USA	Americas
38	University of Manchester	UK	Europe
39	Dartmouth College	USA	Americas
40	Indiana University	USA	Americas
41	Vanderbilt University	USA	Americas
42	University of Alberta	Canada	Americas
43	University of California, Irvine	USA	Americas
43	University of Sydney	Australia	Asia/Pacific
45	University of Zurich	Switzerland	Europe
46	University of Arizona	USA	Americas
46	Utrecht University	Netherlands	Europe
48	Aarhus University	Denmark	Europe
48	Toulouse School of Economics	France	Europe
50	Copenhagen Business School	Denmark	Europe
51-75	George Mason University	USA	Americas
51-75	Georgia Institute of Technology	USA	Americas
51-75	Johns Hopkins University	USA	Americas
51-75	Leiden University	Netherlands	Europe
51-75	London Business School	UK	Europe
51-75	Lund University	Sweden	Europe
51-75	Michigan State University	USA	Americas
51-75	Temple University	USA	Americas
51-75	Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Israel	Asia/Pacific
51-75	University of Georgia	USA	Americas
51-75	University of New South Wales	Australia	Asia/Pacific
51-75	University of Sheffield	UK	Europe
51-75	University of Texas at Dallas	USA	Americas
51-75	University College London	UK	Europe
51-75	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands	Europe
51-75	University of British Columbia	Canada	Americas
51-75	University of Essex	UK	Europe
51-75	University of Illinois at Chicago	USA	Americas
51-75	University of Miami	USA	Americas
51-75	University of Notre Dame	USA	Americas
51-75	University of Oslo	Norway	Europe
51-75	University of Warwick	UK	Europe
51-75	University of Wisconsin	USA	Americas
51-75	University of Wollongong	Australia	Asia/Pacific
51-75	Uppsala University	Sweden	Europe
76-100	Boston University	USA	Americas
76-100	Ghent University	Belgium	Europe
76-100	Lancaster University	UK	Europe
76-100	Maastricht University	Netherlands	Europe
76-100	Monash University	Australia	Asia/Pacific
76-100	National University of Singapore	Singapore	Asia/Pacific
76-100	Pompeu Fabra University	Spain	Europe
76-100	Purdue University	USA	Americas
76-100	Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey	USA	Americas
76-100	George Washington University	USA	Americas
76-100	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	China-hk	Asia/Pacific
76-100	The University of Queensland	Australia	Asia/Pacific
76-100	University of Western Australia	Australia	Asia/Pacific
76-100	University of Arkansas	USA	Americas
76-100	University of Bergen	Norway	Europe
76-100	University of Bonn	Germany	Europe
76-100	University of California, Davis	USA	Americas
76-100	University of California, Santa Barbara	USA	Americas
76-100	University of Colorado Boulder	USA	Americas
76-100	University of East Anglia	UK	Europe
76-100	University of Florida	USA	Americas
76-100	University of Groningen	Netherlands	Europe
76-100	University of Hawai’i at Mānoa	USA	Americas
76-100	University of Pittsburgh	USA	Americas
76-100	University of Virginia	USA	Americas
101-150	Boston College	USA	Americas
101-150	Brown University	USA	Americas
101-150	City University of Hong Kong	China-hk	Asia/Pacific
101-150	Drexel University	USA	Americas
101-150	Durham University	UK	Europe
101-150	Emory University	USA	Americas
101-150	European University Institute	Italy	Europe
101-150	Florida State University	USA	Americas
101-150	Free University of Berlin	Germany	Europe
101-150	Georgetown University	USA	Americas
101-150	Georgia State University	USA	Americas
101-150	Griffith University	Australia	Asia/Pacific
101-150	King's College London	UK	Europe
101-150	McGill University	Canada	Americas
101-150	McMaster University	Canada	Americas
101-150	Nanyang Technological University	Singapore	Asia/Pacific
101-150	Northeastern University	USA	Americas
101-150	Peking University	China	Asia/Pacific
101-150	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands	Europe
101-150	Rice University	USA	Americas
101-150	Simon Fraser University	Canada	Americas
101-150	Stockholm University	Sweden	Europe
101-150	ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich	Switzerland	Europe
101-150	Tel Aviv University	Israel	Asia/Pacific
101-150	Australian National University	Australia	Asia/Pacific
101-150	Chinese University of Hong Kong	China-hk	Asia/Pacific
101-150	Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	China-hk	Asia/Pacific
101-150	Imperial College London	UK	Europe
101-150	University of Edinburgh	UK	Europe
101-150	Tilburg University	Netherlands	Europe
101-150	University at Buffalo	USA	Americas
101-150	University of Birmingham	UK	Europe
101-150	University of Connecticut	USA	Americas
101-150	University of Copenhagen	Denmark	Europe
101-150	University of Gothenburg	Sweden	Europe
101-150	University of Houston	USA	Americas
101-150	University of Konstanz	Germany	Europe
101-150	University of Leeds	UK	Europe
101-150	University of Missouri	USA	Americas
101-150	University of Montreal	Canada	Americas
101-150	LMU Munich	Germany	Europe
101-150	University of New Hampshire - Durham	USA	Americas
101-150	University of Nottingham	UK	Europe
101-150	University of South Carolina	USA	Americas
101-150	University of Sussex	UK	Europe
101-150	University of the Witwatersrand	South Africa	Africas
101-150	University of Utah	USA	Americas
101-150	University of Victoria	Canada	Americas
101-150	Wageningen University & Research	Netherlands	Europe
101-150	Washington State University	USA	Americas
151-200	Aalto University	Finland	Europe
151-200	American University	USA	Americas
151-200	Brigham Young University	USA	Americas
151-200	Cardiff University	UK	Europe
151-200	Case Western Reserve University	USA	Americas
151-200	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands	Europe
151-200	Iowa State University	USA	Americas
151-200	National Taiwan University	China-tw	Asia/Pacific
151-200	Newcastle University	UK	Europe
151-200	Queen's University	Canada	Americas
151-200	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China	Asia/Pacific
151-200	Sun Yat-sen University	China	Asia/Pacific
151-200	University of Adelaide	Australia	Asia/Pacific
151-200	University of Auckland	New Zealand	Asia/Pacific
151-200	University of Calgary	Canada	Americas
151-200	University of Hong Kong	China-hk	Asia/Pacific
151-200	University of New Mexico	USA	Americas
151-200	Tufts University	USA	Americas
151-200	State University of New York Albany	USA	Americas
151-200	University of Antwerp	Belgium	Europe
151-200	University of Bristol	UK	Europe
151-200	University of California, San Francisco	USA	Americas
151-200	University of Central Florida	USA	Americas
151-200	University of Cincinnati	USA	Americas
151-200	University of Exeter	UK	Europe
151-200	Goethe University Frankfurt	Germany	Europe
151-200	University of Haifa	Israel	Asia/Pacific
151-200	University of Iowa	USA	Americas
151-200	University of Kansas	USA	Americas
151-200	University of Kentucky	USA	Americas
151-200	University of Koeln	Germany	Europe
151-200	University of Lausanne	Switzerland	Europe
151-200	University of Mannheim	Germany	Europe
151-200	University of Massachusetts	USA	Americas
151-200	University of Nebraska-Lincoln	USA	Americas
151-200	University of Oklahoma	USA	Americas
151-200	University of Oregon	USA	Americas
151-200	University of Ottawa	Canada	Americas
151-200	University of Rochester	USA	Americas
151-200	University of South Florida	USA	Americas
151-200	University of Southampton	UK	Europe
151-200	University of Tennessee - Knoxville	USA	Americas
151-200	University of Vienna	Austria	Europe
151-200	University of Waterloo	Canada	Americas
151-200	University of York	UK	Europe
151-200	Utah State University	USA	Americas
151-200	Virginia Commonwealth University	USA	Americas
151-200	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	USA	Americas
151-200	University of Western Ontario	Canada	Americas
151-200	York University	Canada	Americas