Heidelberg University ranks among the world’s best in the fields of medical technology and clinical medicine. In the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2020, medical technology places twelfth and clinical medicine 16th (previously 35th), an improvement of 19 places. This puts each of these subjects first in Germany, and with public health it is achieved by a third discipline from the field of medicine. Public health climbed to 47th position internationally, moving up from the 51-to-75 ranking group.

In the natural sciences, Heidelberg physics is now among the world’s 50 best, rising to 44th internationally and placed second in Germany. Also ranking second in Germany are the biological sciences (jointly with another German university) and biotechnology, which falls in the engineering category. In the worldwide comparison, both subjects fall within the 51-to-75 ranking group. Another subject in the medical sciences category, pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences, moved up from this ranking group to 50th (fourth place in Germany).

The subject ranking list, which is part of the Academic Ranking of World Universities, also known as the Shanghai Ranking, was published in June 2020. It comprises five broad fields of academic study to which the individual subject areas evaluated are assigned. The ranking is largely based on the number of publications, and most subjects also take into account the awards won by an institution. There are a total of five indicators, each of which is weighted differently depending on the discipline. In the Academic Ranking of World Universities published last year, Heidelberg University ranked number one in Germany for the sixth year in a row since 2014. In that ranking, Ruperto Carola was placed twelfth in Europe and 47th internationally.