by Adriana Cruz for the USP Journal (original in Portuguese)

On October 27th, the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2023 was released by the Chinese consultancy Shanghai Ranking. The ranking assessed over 5,000 universities from 104 countries in 55 concentration areas, grouped into five major themes: Natural Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences.

USP (University of São Paulo) was ranked in 34 concentration areas and is among the top 50 institutions globally in five of them: Dentistry (14th), Agricultural Sciences (23rd), Veterinary (30th), Food Engineering (31st), and Textile Engineering (31st).

In seven other concentration areas, the university is in the group ranked between 51st and 76th place: Mathematics, Geography, Ecology, Biotechnology, Mining Engineering, Public Health, and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Among the top 150 in the world are Physics, Oceanography, Atmospheric Sciences, Instrument Science and Technology, Metallurgical Engineering, Biological Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, and Clinical Medicine.

The ranking analyzes bibliometric data, considering five indicators: the number of published articles, the impact of articles indexed in InCities, the extent of international collaboration, the number of articles published in impactful journals, and the number of internationally awarded faculty. The concentration area classification has been released since 2009.

The Global Ranking of Academic Subjects is a branch of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), published since 2003 by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and considered one of the pioneers of university rankings.

Highlights in the Fields

The British consultancy Times Higher Education (THE) also released its classification, considering 11 knowledge areas, known as THE by Subject.

In this ranking, USP (University of São Paulo) advanced positions in 8 areas: Arts and Humanities, Life Sciences, Social Sciences, Education, Engineering, Physics, Business and Economics, and Psychology.

USP ranked among the top 100 universities in the world in two of the 11 knowledge areas: Clinical and Health (88th place) and Education (87th).

The THE by Subject employs the same criteria used in the global THE ranking but adapted for each concentration area. Thirteen performance indicators are considered within five areas: Teaching (learning environment), Research (volume, income, and reputation), Citations (research influence), International Outlook (staff, students, and research), and Industry Income (knowledge transfer).

In 2023, USP was the highest-ranked Latin American university in the World University Rankings, released by THE on September 27th.