University of Wrocław in QS WUR by Subject
In the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024, published on April 10th, the University of Wrocław was among the 451-500 top performing universities in the world in the field of Arts & Humanities. The University of Wrocław also took 451-500th place in the world in the field of Natural Sciences.
The QS Rankings are the leading global rankings created since 2004 by QS Quacquarelli Symonds – a global leader in providing analytical services to the international higher education sector. These rankings are one of the most popular sources of data comparing the achievements of universities.
QS annually compares universities in 5 broad scientific fields (Arts & Humanities, Engineering & Technology, Life Sciences & Medicine, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences & Management) and 55 narrower disciplines. In 2024, out of five thousand universities assessed by the ranking institution, 1,559 were included in the final ranking.
In the latest edition of the ranking, the University of Wrocław took 451-500th place in the world in the field of Arts & Humanities, and was ranked 4th among Polish universities in this field. The field of Arts & Humanities includes, among others: such disciplines as archaeology, architecture, art (Art & Design), history, ancient history (Classic & Ancient History), modern languages, linguistics, English studies and English literature, art history, philosophy, theology and religion studies.
The second field in which our university has been classified is Natural Sciences. In this field, the University of Wrocław also ranks 451-500 in the world. In Poland, we are in 7th place among all universities, including 4th among classical universities. Natural Sciences in the QS ranking includes products such as: mathematics, chemistry, geography, geology, geophysics, physics and astronomy, earth and marine sciences (Earth & Marine Sciences), as well as environmental sciences (Environmental Sciences).
When it comes to the classification of narrower disciplines including the Natural Sciences category, the University of Wrocław is ranked 451-500 in the world in the field of physics and astronomy. We took 6th place in Poland (ex aequo with the Gdańsk University of Technology and the Wrocław University of Science and Technology), including 4th among classical universities. Mathematics of the University of Wrocław was also classified 451-500 (6th place in Poland, including 3rd among classical universities). Chemistry was placed slightly lower, at 551-600th place (6th place in Poland ex aequo with AGH University and Adam Mickiewicz University (UAM); including 3rd among classical universities ex aequo with UAM).
Moreover, the University of Wrocław took 651-670th place in the field of biological sciences (life sciences & medicine). When it comes to biological sciences, we are in 5th place among Polish universities.
Ranking methodology
The QS by Subject ranking methodology is based on several key indicators, the most important of which is the reputation of a given university among the academic staff. Depending on the broad field assessed, this indicator has a weighting from 40% (Engineering & Technology, Life Sciences & Medicine, Natural Sciences) to as much as 60% (Arts & Humanities). In the case of narrower disciplines, this indicator may have an even higher weighting and be to up to 70%. QS obtains opinions on the quality of research and education at individual universities from research conducted among over 150,000 scientists around the world to whom ranking surveys are sent.
The second important indicator, also obtained from surveys, is the reputation of the university and its graduates among employers (for this year’s edition, QS sought the opinions of as many as 99,000 employers). This indicator has a weight ranging from 10% (Life Sciences & Medicine) to 30% (Engineering & Technology, Social Sciences & Management). The remaining indicators are citations with a weighting of 7.5% for Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences & Management, 10% for Engineering & Technology, 15% for Natural Sciences and 20% for Life Sciences & Medicine. The Hirsch index has exactly the same weighting. The last indicator taken into account is the so-called IRN, i.e. International Research Network, measuring the effectiveness with which institutions create sustainable international research cooperation. IRN has a weighting of 5% to 10%.
In terms of the Academic Reputation indicator (opinion of the discipline among scientists), the University of Wrocław obtained the most points in the Communication & Media Studies discipline – 62.3 points. Taking into account Employer Reputation (reputation among employers), geography was the highest among the UWr disciplines, obtaining 57.2 points. In the citation category, physics and astronomy lead with 80.2 points. Physicists and astronomers are also the best in terms of the IRN (international research cooperation) index with 58.1 points. When it comes to the Hirsch index, geologists received the highest number of points – 68.2. Detailed information on the ranking results can be found on the top universities website.
Translated by Joanna Grabowiecka (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
