Subjects at the University of Bristol are world-class, new league table confirms

Press release issued: 29 June 2017

Many of the courses taught at the University of Bristol are among the best in the world, according to a new international league table.

Shanghai Ranking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) 2017 is released today [29 June] and highlights the world's top universities in a range of popular subject areas.

It confirms that 16 subjects taught by the University of Bristol are highly rated within the world's top 100.

The rankings analyse 4,000 universities and look at a collection of indicators, including measures of research productivity, research quality, extent of international collaboration, research with top quality, and the highest academic recognitions.

Bristol has been ranked in 35 subjects across natural sciences, engineering, life sciences, medical sciences, and social sciences.

Eight of its subjects are within the top 50 and two are within the top 20 alongside other leading universities such as Princeton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Nanyang Technological University, Delft and Sydney.

Most notably, Water Resources at Bristol was ranked 11^th in the world and the best in the UK. Veterinary Sciences was also ranked 11^th in the world and 4^th in the UK.

Other subjects which were ranked in the top 50 were:

Earth Sciences – 23^rd in the world and 4^th in the UK
Geography – 26^th in the world and 9^th in the UK
Aerospace Engineering – 34^th in the world and 4^th in the UK
Public Health – 37^th in the world and 7^th in the UK
Mathematics – 40^th in the world and 6^th in the UK
Pharmacology – 37^th in the world and 10^th in the UK (classified as Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in the rankings)

Shanghai Ranking began to publish Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) by academic subjects since 2009 and is considered one of the leading international league tables.

The University of Bristol was ranked 8th in the UK and rose nine places to 57th in the world last year – its highest ranking in 13 years.

Professor Hugh Brady, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Bristol, said: "Bristol is renowned for its academic excellence across a range of subjects and it is very pleasing to see this recognised in these new international rankings.

"This success is testament to the terrific hard work, academic brilliance and commitment of all our staff. Through the delivery of our ambitious new strategy, we are building on our existing reputation to cement our position as one of the world's leading centres for teaching and research."