University of Cologne Achieves Top Results in Two International Subject Rankings
The subject rankings of the Times Higher Education World University (THE) Rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) give subjects at the University of Cologne top scores: In the THE Ranking, the University is among the 10 best universities in Germany in more than half of the ranked subjects. In the ARWU Ranking, sociology in particular stands out, achieving first place nationally. Both rankings take different subjects into account and use different indicators.
THE subject ranking
The University of Cologne has twice made it into the top 100 universities worldwide in the current THE subject rankings: in the subject area of Law, the University is ranked 57th internationally, and in the subject area of Arts & Humanities, it is ranked 81st internationally.
Nationally, the University is among the 10 best universities in Germany in six subjects: In addition to Law (4th place) and Arts & Humanities (7th place), the UoC is ranked 5th to 6th in Business and Economics, 8th to 9th in Social Sciences, 9th to 10th in Psychology and 9th to 10th in Education.
About the ranking: The annually published THE World University Rankings are among of the most influential university rankings worldwide. The rankings are calculated on the basis of 17 indicators from the areas of teaching, research environment, research quality, internationality and industry.
ARWU subject ranking
In the ‘Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2023’ of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU, also known as the Shanghai Ranking), the subject Sociology at the University of Cologne once again achieved first place in Germany. It is ranked 43rd internationally. The Biological Sciences are ranked 5-7 nationally, Medical Technology 11-14 nationally, and both subjects ranked 76-100 internationally. Political Science is ranked 5-8 nationally, Psychology 7-12 and Human Biological Sciences 10-16. Internationally, the three subjects are ranked 101-150. Earth Sciences are ranked 11-14 nationally, 151-200 internationally. Business Administration is ranked 4-8 nationally, Management 3-7. Internationally, both subjects are ranked 201-300.
About the ranking: The ARWU University Ranking is conducted by the Center for World-Class Universities (CWCU) of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The current subject ranking evaluates institutions in 55 subjects from the fields of natural sciences, engineering, life sciences, medicine and social sciences. Universities that have published a certain number of publications between 2018 and 2022 are taken into account. The threshold for the number of publications is set differently for the different subjects. The bibliometric data are obtained from the Web of Science and InCites.
Link to the University of Cologne Website.