Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) 2020 is released today by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. ShanghaiRanking began to publish Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) by academic subjects since 2009. This release contains rankings of universities in 54 subjects across Natural Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences. In total, more than 4000 universities were ranked.
The NO.1 universities ranked in each subject are shown below. Universities from the United States take top positions in 31 subjects, Chinese universities dominate 11 subjects. The best performing institution is Harvard University, taking 14 crowns, 5 of which are from Social Sciences subjects, 4 from Medical Sciences, 3 from Engineering, and 2 from Life Sciences. MIT tops 6 subjects, 5 of which are engineering subjects. Other universities who top more than one subject rankings include University of California, Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania and University of Colorado at Boulder from the United States, Oxford University from the United Kingdom and Nanyang Technological University from Singapore. Paris-Saclay University tops the table of the subject of Mathematics at its first appearance in ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects.
NO. 1 University in 54 subjects
More than 1800 universities from 90 countries and regions are published in this release and are presented on the league table for a total of 19100 times. Universities from the United States appear 4826 times, followed by Chinese universities (2647 times) and universities from the United Kingdom (1607 times). University of British Columbia, the University of New South Wales, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, The Ohio State University-Columbus, The University of Melbourne and McGill University are presented on the league table in more than 50 subjects.
The subject rankings maintain the use of transparent methodology and third-party data. Ranking indicators include those measures of research quality, extent of international collaboration, research with top quality, and the highest academic recognitions. Academic award is a featured indicator of ShanghaiRanking’s global rankings. In GRAS 2020, 30 awards identified by professors from world’s Top 100 universities through Academic Excellence Survey are used, which cover 25 ranked subjects. The Academic Excellence Survey also generates 151 top journals in 47 subjects, and 22 top academic conferences in Computer Science & Engineering. We would like to take this opportunity to thank those scholars who complete the survey for their significant contribution on building the criteria of academic excellence.
In GRAS 2020, the ‘PUB’ indicator is replaced by the ‘Q1’, defined as the number of papers authored by an institution in an Academic Subject in journals with Q1 Journal Impact Factor Quartile in order to encourage research with high quality.
2020 ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects — Ranking Indicators
| Indicator | Definition |
|---|---|
| Q1 | The number of papers published in Q1 Journal Impact Factor Quartile in an Academic Subject |
| CNCI | Category Normalized Citation Impact from InCites to measure average impact of papers authored by an institution in an Academic Subject |
| IC | The percentage of internationally co-authored papers authored by an institution in an Academic Subject |
| Top | The number of papers published in top journals and conferences in an Academic Subject |
| Award | The total number of the staff of an institution winning a significant award in an Academic Subject |
For more information about ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2020, visit: shanghairanking.com
