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Subjects at the University of Bristol are world-class, new league table confirms

Press release issued: 29 June 2020

Research and teaching in key areas at the University of Bristol is among the best in the world, according to a new international league table.

Shanghai Ranking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) 2020 highlights the world's top universities in a range of popular subject areas.

It confirms that 20 subjects at the University of Bristol are highly rated within the world's top 100, with five of these featuring in the top 50.

Most notably, the field of Public Health is ranked 3rd in the UK and 8th globally. Water Resources* is 1st in the UK and 10th in the world; Earth Sciences is 3rd in the UK and 20th globally; Aerospace Engineering is ranked 3rd in the UK and has risen 10 places to 27th in the world; while Statistics has also gone up two places to 5th in the UK and up nine places to 34th in the world.

The rankings analyse 4,000 universities and look at a collection of indicators, including measures of research productivity, research quality, extent of international collaboration, research with top quality, and the highest academic recognitions.

Bristol has been ranked in 41 subjects across the subjects analysed by the rankings: natural sciences, engineering, life sciences, medical sciences, and social sciences.

Shanghai Ranking has been publishing the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) by academic subjects since 2009 and is considered one of the leading international league tables.

The University of Bristol was ranked 8th in the UK and 64th in the world last year according to the ARWU.

Further information

*Water research in Bristol is linked up through the water theme within the University of Bristol’s Cabot Institute for the Environment. The water theme brings together researchers and academics across all career stages and from all University faculties. This ranking is another indicator of their exceptional performance and of the high-quality research performed across the University.

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