QS World University Rankings by Subject: South Asia on the rise
The recently released QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026 highlights the top universities for each subject from all over the world. New entrants from East Asia and performance improvements from South Asian universities are challenging the higher education status quo.
The recently released QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026 highlights the top universities for each subject from all over the world. New entrants and performance improvements from South Asian universities are challenging the higher education status quo.
Global trends
Across each of the subject area rankings, the regions which saw the most upward movement were South Asia, where 40% of universities saw improvement, Southeast Asia where 38% of universities saw improvement, and Australia and New Zealand, where 37% of universities saw improvement.
Furthermore, the regions which had the largest number of new entries were Northern Africa (32% of universities) and Central Asia (28% of universities), indicating a rise in internationally competitive universities in those regions.
Arts and Humanities
The Arts and Humanities rankings included more than 3,450 ranked university-subject entries this year, with over 490 new entries appearing in the rankings.
Over 1,000 universities from last year moved up through the rankings including top 10 entrants, University of Oxford (+1 position), Yale University (+1), University of Colombia (+6), University College London (+3), and The University of Edinburgh (+1).
Australia and New Zealand made the most notable improvements in the ranking with 25% of their universities seeing upward movement. These include The University of Melbourne (+7), The University of Sydney (+7) and Australian National University (+1).
Engineering and Technology
The Engineering and technology ranking saw 470 new subject entrants and over 1,150 cases of universities improving their ranking. Examples of these universities in the top 10 include ETH Zurich (+2), Imperial College London (+1), National University of Singapore (+4), and Nanyang Technological University (+1).
The highest-ranking university for engineering and technology is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT received a perfect score in the academic reputation indicator but also scored very well for employer reputation.
Life Sciences and Medicine
There were over 430 new entrants to the Life Sciences and Medicine rankings this year, with more than 4,000 university-subject entries ranked overall.
The top ranked university again this year was Harvard University in the US which received a perfect score in the Employer Reputation, H-Index Citation, Academic Reputation, and International Research indicators.
Although the top four universities remained unchanged in life sciences and medicine this year, over 1,210 universities did see upward movement, including the other six universities in the top 10.
Natural Sciences
370 new universities were included in this year’s natural sciences ranking with over 1,430 universities seeing upwards movement including the top 10 entrant University of California Berkeley, which ranked 7th this year after moving up one position.
The region which saw the most improvement was central Asia with 50% of universities there seeing upward movement.
Harvard University is ranked first in this indicator again this year, receiving a perfect score for employer reputation and a near perfect score in the citations per paper indicator.
Social Science and Management
Social Sciences and Management, the largest ranking which includes over 5,480 subjects, expanded even more this year with over 640 new subjects included.
It was also the ranking which saw the largest number of universities improve. Over 1,650 universities moved up including The University of Cambridge, London School of Economics and Political Science, Yale University, and Columbia University in the top 10, which each moved up one position, and National University of Singapore, which moved up two.
Harvard University ranked highest overall, receiving its best scores in the employer reputation, academic reputation, and H-index citation indicators.
Get more analysis from the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026 in QS Insights Magazine.
What's happening elsewhere in higher education?
- AI continues to move into the institutional core: The University of Maryland launched new AI degree programmes, while the University of Toronto partnered with Cohere on responsible AI adoption — another sign universities are building AI into both curricula and campus infrastructure.
- Skills investment scales up across Asia: China pledged to train 300,000 young Pakistanis in digital skills each year, while Thailand launched a five-ministry skills overhaul focused on robotics, automation and a unified national skills database.
- Student mobility keeps shifting: Canada is considering further tightening of its student visa rules, as the Philippines and New Zealand moved in the opposite direction, signing their first education cooperation agreement, aiming to strengthen student and academic mobility, research and workforce development.