World leader for social sciences in QS World Rankings

The latest QS World University Rankings by Subject show the University of Essex is amongst the world's elite institutions in eight subjects with outstanding results in the social sciences.

The QS indicators used for the rankings show Essex has the 5th highest ‘citations per paper’ in Sociology internationally and is ranked 25th globally for ‘academic reputation’ in Politics and International Studies.

In the overall subject rankings – covering academic reputation, citations and feedback from employers - Essex is in the top 50 for Politics and International Studies and also Sociology.

Essex has also achieved a top 150 ranking for Economics and Econometrics and a top 200 ranking for Law – which is also ranked in the top 50 for citations. In the Social Sciences and Management subject area, Essex is also in the top 50 internationally for citations.

In the Arts and Humanities subject area, Linguistics is in the top 150 – in the top 50 for citations - and English Language and Literature in the top 200.

Two science subjects at Essex have climbed up the rankings. Computer Science and information Systems has moved into the top 350 while Psychology at Essex has entered the top 250 for the first time.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Anthony Forster said: “We are a world leader in the social sciences and the rankings show the strong academic reputation we have globally.

“These rankings gather views from the academic community and top employers so provide a valuable insight into how we are performing on a global stage.

“In the coming year we will look to continue to build on our strengths around academic reputation and citations, while also working with our partners and international alumni to extend our engagement with employers around the world.”

This year’s QS World University Rankings by Subject evaluated more universities and more subjects than ever before. To compile the rankings, the QS team reviewed 4,438 universities, qualified 3,098 and ranked 1,117 institutions. Over 127 million citations attributions were analysed and 18,900 teaching programs were verified.

The QS World University Rankings by Subject draw on three extensive datasets – the QS academic and employer reputation surveys plus citation information from Elsevier’s Scopus abstract and citation database.

The latest QS rankings follow on from Essex being ranked in the top 30 in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guidein 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.