University news

The 2023 QS World University Rankings by Subject are released today (22 March 2023).  

QS Rankings by Subject detail performance in five broad academic areas, and across individual subjects. They end the 2023 ranking cycle for QS.  

• 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.   

Notable highlights from this year’s World Subject Rankings results include: 

• Of the five broad subject/faculty areas, the University maintain three in the world top 100:
  • Life Sciences
  • Arts & Humanities
  • Social Sciences & Management
• The University has 24 subjects in the top 100. 
• Life Sciences & Medicine is our best performing subject area, rising to 44 in the world and ninth in the UK. 
• Anatomy is ranked in the top five in their subject area in the UK. 
• Arts & Humanities has risen seven places to 59 in the world and is 12 the UK. 
• The University has eight subjects in the world top 50: 
  • Anatomy & Physiology 
  • Education 
  • English Language & Literature 
  • Geography 
  • Library & Information Management 
  • Medicine 
  • Social Policy & Administration 
  • Veterinary Science 

Speaking about the results, Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, said: "It is encouraging once again to see a strong set of results in the QS World Rankings by Subject. With 24 out of 43 subject areas ranking in the top 100 in the world, these results show the global reputation of the University of Glasgow across a broad range of subject areas. 

“I’d like to thank colleagues, firstly for their dedication and hard work which has ensured that we continue to rank as a truly world leading university, and also for their assistance in returning the data to QS, which is crucial in the process and informs these rankings.” 

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 Subject Rankings 2023 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