Arts and Humanities ranked within the world’s top 50

Arts and Humanities subjects at the University of St Andrews are among the strongest in the world for teaching and research, according to a new international ranking published this month (10 April).

The QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024 position St Andrews at 56th in the world for Arts and Humanities study and research, with five schools and departments featuring in the world’s top 50:

• Department of Philosophy (12th)
• School of Classics and Ancient History (12th)
• School of Divinity (14th)
• School of History (43rd)
• School of English (47th)

A further eight subject areas have been ranked in the world’s top 100:

• Modern Languages (65th, up from 66th)
• Archaeology (band 51 to 100)
• Earth and Marine Sciences (band 51 to 100)
• Geography (band 51 to 100)
• Geology (band 51 to 100)
• Geophysics (band 51 to 100)
• Anthropology (band 51 to 100)
• Politics and International Studies (band 51 to 100)

The QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024 rank 1,559 institutions across 55 individual subjects within five broad subject areas. Rankings are comprised of five metrics: Academic Reputation, Employer Reputation, Citations Per Papers, the H-index (which measures the stability of impact and quality of the work published by the institutions’ scientists and scholars), and International Research Networks.  Further information on methodology is available from the QS website.

QS World University Subject Rankings data is also used to compile the annual QS World University Rankings, in which St Andrews placed 96th in 2023. The 2024 World University Rankings are due to be published in June.