QS Subject Rankings: Ruperto Carola No. 1 in Germany in Three Subjects

Heidelberg University has further cemented its position as a leading institution in Germany and the world in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2014. According to the ranking’s criteria, Ruperto Carola is the best university in Germany in medicine, philosophy and law. Overall Heidelberg is among the 50 best universities worldwide in eight subjects – that is one more than in 2013. In fact, in all subjects the university significantly improved its standing over last year.

Ruperto Carola edged ahead five places in medicine, ranking 31st in the world and maintaining its 1st-place standing in Germany, as it had in 2013. A 20th-place ranking in philosophy (25th last year) and a significant leap of law from 41st to 24th place puts Heidelberg University at the top of this year’s ranking in Germany in both subjects. Modern languages and history also fared considerably better compared to 2013: Heidelberg is ranked second in Germany in modern languages with a world ranking of 21st (47th last year). In history Ruperto Carola is Germany’s third-best university, skyrocketing in the world ranking from 38th in 2013 to 18th. The university placed 34th in the biosciences (up from 42nd last year), earning it the second-place spot among German universities.

For the first time, Heidelberg earned a spot among the world’s top 50 universities in linguistics, which came in at 50th. In Germany, Ruperto Carola is the second-best university in this discipline. Physics and astronomy earned Heidelberg another spot among the world’s top 50 with a solid 27th place, ranking it fourth in Germany. In the group between 51 and 100, Heidelberg is the second-best German university in pharmacy and political science and third-best in the earth sciences.

The rankings in the QS World University Rankings by Subject are based on the data from the QS World University Ranking from the fall of 2013, in which Heidelberg University ranked first in Germany. The indicators for the individual subject rankings were calculated from a subset of the data from the main ranking, namely data from surveys of academics and employers as well as citation analyses.