The 2014-2015 Times Higher Education World University Rankings' Social Sciences table judges world class universities across all of their core missions - teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. The ranking of the world's top 100 universities for social sciences employs 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons available, which are trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments.

Top 100 universities for social sciences 2014-2015

Rank Institution Location Overall score
1 Stanford University United States
93.1
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) United States
92.6
3 University of Oxford United Kingdom
92.2
4 Harvard University United States
91.9
5 Princeton University United States
91.1
6 University of Chicago United States
90.7
7 Yale University United States
90.0
8 University of Michigan United States
88.8
9 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) United States
87.4
10 University of Cambridge United Kingdom
86.6
11 London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) United Kingdom
85.4
12 University of Pennsylvania United States
85.0
13 University College London (UCL) United Kingdom
83.6
14 Columbia University United States
83.3
15 New York University (NYU) United States
82.1
15 Northwestern University United States
82.1
17 University of Wisconsin-Madison United States
79.8
18 University of California, Berkeley United States
78.8
19 University of Melbourne Australia
76.0
20
University of Toronto
Canada
75.9
21
University of British Columbia
Canada
75.4
22 Duke University United States
75.2
23 Cornell University United States
71.4
24 Australian National University Australia
70.4
25 McGill University Canada
70.3
26 University of Texas at Austin United States
70.2
27 King's College London United Kingdom
69.5
28 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States
68.8
29
The University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
65.3
29
National University of Singapore (NUS)
Singapore
65.3
31 University of Sydney Australia
65.1
32 Ohio State University United States
64.9
33 University of Washington United States
64.4
34 University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign United States
63.5
35 University of Queensland Australia Australia
62.4
36 University of Amsterdam Netherlands
62.0
37 University of Minnesota United States
61.5
38
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Hong Kong
61.2
39 University of Manchester United Kingdom
60.5
40 Erasmus University Rotterdam Netherlands
59.8
41 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom
59.4
42 Peking University China
59.1
43 Pennsylvania State University United States
59.0
44 University of Virginia United States
58.8
45 Michigan State University United States
58.5
46 University of New South Wales Australia
58.4
47 University of Warwick United Kingdom
57.9
48 University of Southern California United States
57.6
49 KU Leuven Belgium
57.3
49 HEC Paris France
57.3
51 Carnegie Mellon University United States
57.2
52 University of Cape Town South Africa
57.0
53 Washington University in St Louis United States
56.7
54 Indiana University United States
56.1
55 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Germany
55.7
56 University of California, Santa Barbara United States
55.6
56 Durham University United Kingdom
55.6
58 Boston University United States
54.7
59 University of California, San Diego United States
54.0
60 Arizona State University United States
53.6
61
Monash University
Australia
53.5
62
Maastricht University
Netherlands
52.8
63 Tilburg University Netherlands
52.7
64 Utrecht University Netherlands
52.6
65 Leiden University Netherlands
51.9
66 Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
51.8
67
Pompeu Fabra University - Barcelona
Spain
51.5
68
Seoul National University
Republic of Korea
51.1
69 University of Rochester United States
51.0
70 University of Maryland, College Park United States
50.7
71 University of Bristol United Kingdom
50.6
71 Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Germany
50.6
73 Dartmouth College United States
50.4
74 University of California, Davis United States
50.3
75 University of Florida United States
50.0
75 Freie Universität Berlin Germany
50.0
77 University of Western Australia Australia
49.7
78 Emory University United States
49.6
79 University of Sussex United Kingdom
49.4
80 Wageningen University and Research Center Netherlands
49.2
81 University of Pittsburgh United States
49.1
81
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
Taiwan
49.1
83 Vanderbilt University United States
48.8
84 VU University Amsterdam Netherlands
48.7
85 University of Sheffield United Kingdom
48.4
85 University of Auckland New Zealand
48.4
87 University of California, Irvine United States
48.0
87
The University of Tokyo
Japan
48.0
89 University of Nottingham United Kingdom
47.8
90 Brown University United States
47.5
91 Central European University Hungary
47.4
92
Nanyang Technological University
Singapore
47.1
92
University of York
United Kingdom
47.1
92 University of Zürich Switzerland
47.1
95 York University Canada
47.0
96 Cardiff University United Kingdom
46.8
96
University of Groningen
Netherlands
46.8
98 Tsinghua University China
46.6
99 University of Colorado Boulder United States
46.5
100 University of Georgia United States
46.1

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings’ Social Sciences subject ranking includes a wide range of narrower subject areas, defined by our data partners Thomson Reuters.

The full list of Social Sciences subjects used to create this ranking is:

  • Area Studies
  • Anthropology
  • Biomedical Social Sciences
  • Business
  • Communication
  • Criminology & Penology
  • Demography
  • Decision Support/Statistics
  • Economics
  • Education & Educational Research
  • Ethnic Studies
  • Family Studies
  • Geography
  • International Relations
  • Law
  • Library Science
  • Mathematical Methods in Social Sciences
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Public Administration
  • Social Issues
  • Social Work
  • Sociology
  • Urban Studies
  • Women's Studies
  • Social Sciences - Other topics