College of Arts & Humanities news

The Arts & Humanities at the University of Glasgow have risen seven places to 59 in the latest 2023 QS World University Rankings by Subject.

The jump from 66th to 59th in these latest rankings detail performance across five broad areas, and in individual subjects, and ends the 2023 ranking cycle for QS. Arts & Humanities at Glasgow while ranked 59th in the world, are also 12^th in the UK.

The overall 2023 QS World University Rankings were released in June 2022, and Glasgow ranked 81st out of 1,422 institutions.

Professor Jo Gill, Vice Principal and Head of the College of Arts, said: “This is wonderful news for the College of Arts and further evidence of the strength of our reputation and indeed of our sustained commitment to excellence in research, learning and teaching.

“I would like to pay tribute to the hard work and the dedication of colleagues, students and partners who have ensured the College of Arts remains within the world top 100 of the Arts & Humanities subject rankings.”

The University has 24 subjects in the Top 100 and eight subjects in the world top 50 including two from the College of Arts.

English Language & Literature has risen two places to 31^st in the world, holds the highest-ranking position in Arts & Humanities, and remains in the top 3 subjects for the University of Glasgow over the last three years. 

Library & Information Management is now in the top 50 in the world rising 2 places to 49^th.

Subjects are scored and ranked based on the following indicators, all with a weighted score out of 100, with varied weightings depending on the subject:

• Academic Reputation
• Employer Reputation
• Citations per Paper
• H-Index Citations
• International Research Network 

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QS Rankings by Subject

You can view the QS Rankings by Subject results in full on the QS webpages.

The last overall QS World University Rankings were released in June 2022, and Glasgow ranked 81 out of 1,422 institutions.   

QS Subject Rankings 2023 University of Glasgow Overall Performance

The University of Glasgow has performed well overall, ranked in 43 subjects among 1,597 institutions, and largely similar results to 2022.

• Of the five broad subject/faculty areas, the University maintain three in the Top 100, improve in two and decrease in three areas.
• Of the 43 subjects, the University has improved rank position in 18 subjects, 14 have maintained their position and 11 have dropped in rank.
• Geology and Geophysics have ranked for the first time, both in the 201-230 rank banding.
• We have 24 subjects in the Top 100 and eight in the Top 50.
• Our top three subjects are the same as 2022 with Anatomy & Physiology remaining UofG’s best ranking subject, and the top three as follows:

Subject	2021	2022	2023	YoY Change
Anatomy & Physiology	51-100	18=	12	up 6
Veterinary Science	10	18	21	down 3
English Language & Literature	31	33	31=	up 2

2023 Broad Subject/Faculty Performance

At a broad subject/faculty level, Life Sciences & Medicine retained the best performing area, ranked 44^th, up seven places on 2022, and ranked ninth in UK. Results were as follows:

Broad Subject	2022 Rank	2023 Rank	YoY Rank Change	2022 Score	2023 Score	YoY Score Change
Life Sciences & Medicine	51	44=	up 7	79.3	79.4	Up 0.1
Arts & Humanities	66	59=	up 7	76.7	75.9	down 0.8
Social Sciences & Management	97=	98	down 1	73.4	72.5	down 0.9
Natural Sciences	118=	128=	down 10	75.8	74	down 1.8
Engineering & Technology	156=	163=	down 7	73.5	72	down 1.5

2023 Notable Mentions/Changes

• The most improved ranking position belongs to Law, up 10 places from 66 to 56, and Business Management & Studies, up 10 places from 147 to 137.
• The top-ranking subjects in the UK remained the same as 2022:

Subject	2022 Domestic Rank	2023 Domestic Rank	YoY UK Rank Change	2022 Global Rank	2023 Global Rank	YoY Global Rank Change
Anatomy & Physiology	5=	4	+1	18=	12	up 6
Veterinary Science	4	6	-2	18	21	down 3
Library & Information Management	6=	6	0	51-60	50	up 1**
Education	7	7	0	41	43	down 2
Nursing	7=	7	0	51-100	51-100	0

** When moving from a rank banding, where the rank position is unknown, to a rank position, we use the difference between the minimum in the rank banding and the rank position.

• The Citations per Paper indicator remains Glasgow’s strongest area. Anatomy & Physiology scored 100, Medicine scored 96.7 and Veterinary Science scored 95. These are Glasgow’s top three scores across all indicators.
• The International Research Network (IRN) indicator, new in 2022, saw QS move from just ranking the 5 broad subjects to ranking in 15 individual UofG subjects in 2023. Computer Science & Information Systems received the highest score of 78.7 for this indicator.

First published: 22 March 2023