RankingStrong Subjects in the THE Ranking by Subject
20 January 2022
Outstanding placements for medicine, life sciences, physical sciences and the humanities
Heidelberg University has achieved outstanding placements for medicine – referred to as Clinical and Health – and the Life Sciences in a ranking list by subject groups published in the context of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Ranking for 2021/2022. Both these areas are ranked second in Germany. Internationally, they come 38th (Clinical and Health) and 34th (Life Sciences). Heidelberg’s Physical Sciences belong to the “Top 30” of their subject group and occupy place 29 internationally; at the national level they are in third place. The THE ranking by subject lists Arts and Humanities at Ruperto Carola 33rd internationally; they are rated fifth in the Germany-wide evaluation.
In the field of medicine, Heidelberg comes in second after Charité – University Medicine Berlin (32nd internationally) along with Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), both Heidelberg and LMU being ranked 38th for Clinical and Health at the international level. Life Sciences at Heidelberg University edged upwards internationally over 2021, moving from 35th to 34th place. Nationally they are flanked by LMU (first in Germany, 28th internationally) and Technical University of Munich (TUM), which comes third in Germany. In the international ranking by subject TUM takes 43rd place in the Life Sciences.
In the overall THE World University Ranking, Heidelberg University is ranked 42nd, among the “Top 50” universities worldwide. That makes it, after Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Technical University of Munich, one of the three best universities in Germany. The criteria of the ranking by subject correspond to those of the overall THE ranking, but they are weighted differently for each subject group. The weighting is based on different indicators across the five core missions of teaching, research, citations, international outlook and income from industry.