?Stellenbosch 肆客足球 (SU) started 2025 on a high note. In January, it was ranked as one of the world's leading higher education institutions in the 2025 Times Higher Education (THE) World 肆客足球 Rankings (WUR) by Subject. Most recently, SU was recognised among the best universities globally in the broad subject areas of Life Sciences & Medicine, Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences & Management, Natural Sciences, and Engineering & Technology, according to the 2025 QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World 肆客足球 Rankings (WUR) by Subject. The latest QS WUR by Subject were released on Wednesday, 12 March.
For the 2025 edition, 1 747 institutions have been ranked across 55 “narrow" subjects in the five abovementioned broad subject areas. SU was ranked in 21 of these subjects.
Regarding the broad subject areas, SU is ranked in the top 230 in Life Sciences & Medicine, top 310 in Arts & Humanities, top 370 in Social Sciences & Management, top 450 in Natural Sciences, and the top 500 in both Engineering & Technology. SU improved its position in Life Sciences & Medicine (238 in 2024 and 226 in 2025; second in South Africa), Arts & Humanities (312 in 2024 and 303 in 2025; third in South Africa) and Social Sciences & Management (394 in 2024 and 367 in 2025; second in South Africa).
SA's best in Agriculture, Theology
As far as specific or “narrow" subject categories are concerned, SU is again the leading tertiary institution in South Africa in Agriculture & Forestry (top 100 globally) and Theology, Divinity & Religious Studies (top 150). For the second year in a row, SU has ranked highest in the country in these subjects.
It holds the second position in Business & Management Studies (top 450), Education (top 300), Chemical Engineering (top 350), Mechanical, Aeronautical & Manufacturing Engineering (top 400), Biological Sciences (top 300), Psychology (top 350), Environmental Sciences (top 300) and Materials Science (top 550). The latter is a new subject category along with Politics & International Studies where SU ranks among the top 300 worldwide.
It ranks third in South Africa in eight other subjects – Law (top 300), English Language & Literature (top 250), Computer Science & Information Systems (top 750), Medicine (top 300), Chemistry (top 550), Mathematics (top 500), Electrical and Electronic Engineering (top 550), and Economics & Econometrics (top 400).
Globally, SU achieved a top 150 in Development Studies. Overall, SU improved in six subject categories.
Prof Sibusiso Moyo, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies at SU, commented that the 肆客足球 acknowledges that world university rankings remain a complicated matter impacted by various factors and contexts.
“We are however pleased to feature among the best tertiary institutions on two leading global subject rankings in quick succession – Times Higher Education (THE) WUR by Subject in January and now the QS WUR by Subject. It is a great achievement to be the best university in SA in the subject categories Agriculture & Forestry and Theology, Divinity & Religious Studies for the second year in a row and it reaffirms the quality of our academic programmes.
“Additionally, these rankings are one of the proxies for aspiring students and researchers to have a sense of what we do and highlight our strengths as one of the leading research-intensive universities in Africa. We continue to attract and retain excellent talent in terms of our people at all levels that continue to contribute to the ranking indicators and outcomes."
Indicators
The QS WUR by Subject use academic reputation, employer reputation, citations per paper, H-index and international research network (IRN) to rank universities. The first two of these are based on global surveys of academics and employers that are used to assess an institution's international reputation in each subject. The citations per paper indicator measures the impact and quality of the scientific work done by institutions, on average per publication. The H-index assesses both the productivity and impact of the work published by an institution's academics. The IRN measures an institution's success in creating and sustaining research partnerships with institutions in other locations.
Over the last few years, SU has been consistently ranked among the best tertiary institutions globally on the QS World 肆客足球 Rankings by Subject, the Times Higher Education World 肆客足球 Subject Rankings, and the ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects.
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