Four subjects in top 50 of THE world rankings
The University of Sydney has been ranked in the world's top 50 in four subjects in the Times Higher Education 2017-18 World University Rankings by subject and in the top 100 for a further six.
Education and Law were ranked globally 24 and 33 respectively. Both were previously ranked as part of social sciences but this year were listed as separate subjects by Times Higher Education (THE).
Clinical, Pre-clinical and Health, considered as one subject ranked 37 and Life Sciences ranked 47, an impressive improvement from last year’s 60 ranking.
“We are delighted with the University of Sydney’s performance in these subject rankings. Four subjects ranked in the top 50 globally recognising their worldwide reputation and the quality of their research,” said University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor and Principal Dr Michael Spence.
Education and Law are to be congratulated for their strong debut, consistent with their strong positioning on other prestigious world rankings.
“The University recently placed 34th in the world in the latest US News Best Global Universities rankings, evidence of our commitment to being the leading research and education institution in Australia and among the best in the world.”
Psychology, previously encompassed by Social Sciences, was also ranked as a separate subject for the first time by THE, debuting at 65 globally.
The five other subjects joining Psychology in the top 100 were Arts and Humanities (58), Social Sciences (68), Engineering and Technology (76), Business and Economics (83) and Physical Sciences (97).
The methodology behind the Times Higher Education World University Rankings by subject includes a wide range of narrower subject areas under each discipline.
For example life sciences includes agriculture and forestry, biological sciences, vet science and sport science.
While previous editions have listed the top 100 universities in each subject, eight of the tables for 2017-2018 included between 200 and 500 institutions.
The subject tables employ the same range of performance indicators used in the overall World University Rankings 2017-2018, brought together with scores provided under five categories:
- Teaching: the learning environment
- Research: volume, income and reputation
- Citations: research influence
- International outlook: staff, students and research
- Industry income: innovation
However, the overall methodology is recalibrated for each subject, with the weightings changed to suit the individual fields.