China's universities rise in global subject rankings

The 2025 edition of "ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects" has once again thrust Chinese universities into the global spotlight. Released on Tuesday by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, the list shows a notable surge in the Chinese mainland's academic strength, with its universities capturing the top global position in 21 subjects, an increase of three compared to last year.

Among them, Tsinghua University stands out with seven top-ranked subjects, second only to Harvard University in the United States, which leads with 11. Shanghai Jiao Tong University boasts two top-ranked subjects, while 12 other mainland universities, including Beihang University, each have one top-ranked subject.

ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, an independent organization focused on research in higher education, has published the Academic Ranking of World Universities since 2009.

The 2025 GRAS edition evaluates over 3,000 universities worldwide, showcasing nearly 20,000 subject entries from more than 2,000 universities across 92 countries and regions. This year, two new subjects — Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Science and Engineering — were added, bringing the total to 57 subjects across five major fields: natural sciences, engineering, life sciences, medical sciences, and social sciences.

US universities continue to dominate, ranking first in 27 subjects with a total of 4,281 entries, securing the top global spot. Meanwhile, universities from the Chinese mainland have shown remarkable progress, ranking first in 21 subjects with 3,747 entries, securing second place globally. A total of 359 universities from the Chinese mainland appear in the rankings, marking a steady growth in both entries and listed universities over the past decade.

Harvard University leads globally with 11 top-ranked subjects. Other universities with multiple top-ranked subjects include Tsinghua University (7), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (4), Stanford University (3), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (3), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2), and the University of Chicago (2).

For the first time, universities from the Chinese mainland achieved global firsts in three subjects: Power Electronics Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering.

Zhejiang University continues to excel, maintaining its lead from last year with 55 ranked subjects, making it the institution with the most ranked subjects globally. The University of Oxford and the National University of Singapore follow closely with 53 ranked subjects each.

The 2025 GRAS is built on an indicator system comprising five modules: "World-Class Faculty", "World-Class Research Output", "High-Quality Research Output", "Research Influence", and "International Collaboration". Together, nine objective indicators reflect the international competitiveness of each discipline.

GRAS utilizes the "Academic Excellence Survey" by ShanghaiRanking, which includes 46 international authoritative academic awards, 175 top academic journals (and 26 top conferences for Computer Science and Engineering and Artificial Intelligence), and 33 significant international academic organizations as objective measures of world-class academic performance in each subject.

The survey targets deans, department heads, and full professors from the world's top 100 universities, inviting them to nominate top journals, authoritative awards, and important academic organizations that represent excellence in their disciplines, rather than directly evaluating the reputation of university disciplines. To ensure transparency and quality, all participating scholars must agree to disclose their names and affiliations. Several renowned Chinese scholars also participated in this survey.