Global top 10 for politics and international relations

The University of Essex is ranked in the top 10 in the world for both political science and international relations in the latest analysis by the Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR) – the largest academic ranking of global universities.

The CWUR Rankings by Subject 2017 highlight the world’s elite universities in the sciences and the social sciences, based on the number of research articles in top-tier journals. The CWUR team review more than 26,000 higher education institutions using data from Clarivate Analytics (previously the Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters).

In the political science top 10, Essex is listed 10th alongside leading United States institutions and two other UK universities – the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics. Essex, the London School of Economics and the University of British Columbia are the only universities outside the United States to earn a place in the top 10 rankings for international relations.

Executive Dean for Social Science Professor Sasha Roseneil said: “Essex is recognised as a world leader in the social sciences and this once again highlights the strength of our research. I am delighted to see our Department of Government ranked in the top 10 for both Political Science and International Relations. Our researchers are committed to delivering research that has a real global impact and to pushing forward the frontiers of the disciplines."

This is the first time CWUR has ranked subjects and Essex is 166th overall out of global institutions with the “most Top-10 placements” according to CWUR.

These latest rankings follow on from Essex being ranked in the top 30 in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide in 2016 and ranked 4th in the UK for social science research and in the top 20 overall for research excellence in the Research Excellence Framework, the national assessment of research quality and impact. Essex now been number one for the quality of its politics and international studies research in each of the last six assessments, dating back to 1986 when national rankings began. More than two thirds of Essex’s politics research is rated as world-leading.