Transportation science and technology was ranked fifth in the world, clinical medicine 16th and veterinary science 18th.
Subjects that showed considerable improvement include clinical medicine climbing 16 positions from 32 to 16 and civil engineering improving up from 38 to 24 in the world.
"These strong results show our teaching and research are world class,” said Dr Michael Spence, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Sydney.
“They place us as one of the best performing universities in the world and acknowledge the high quality of our research and teaching."
The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) is released annually by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy. It considers more than 1,500 universities worldwide, providing specific rankings for the top 100 universities.
Among the heavily weighted criteria considered in the ARWU rankings are research output, highly cited researchers and prestigious academic awards, such as Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals.
In the 2018 Academic Ranking of World Universities, the University of Sydney ranked 68th in the world, rising 15 places since the 2017 ranking.