Linguistics and Geography move to 14th spot (up from 17 and 16 respectively). Anthropology and Sociology keep their 14th spot, while Psychology remains at 17.

Top 50

The number of UvA subject areas with a top 50 ranking have risen to 20 (up from 19 last year). Besides the aforementioned subject areas, these include: Education 23 (unchanged), Development Studies 26 (was 34), Library Management 26 (new this year), Social Policy & Administration 29 (32), Politics & International Studies 31 (33), Philosophy 33 (41), Medicine 34 (36), History 34 (38), English Language & Literature 38 (46), Modern Languages 44 (35), Law 48 (51-100), Physics & Astronomy 49 (51-100), Economics & Econometrics 49 (42), and Performing Arts 49 (49).

Top 100

Outside the top 50, universities are ranked by group instead of individually. The UvA subject areas listed in the group 51-100 are: Archaeology, (unchanged from last year). Theology, Divinity & Religious Studies (was 44), Computer Science & Information Systems (51-100), Biological Sciences (51-100), Chemistry (51-100), Mathematics (51-100), Accounting & Finance (51-100), Business & Management Studies (51-100), and Statistics & Operational Research (47).

About the ranking

QS ranks subject areas on the basis of four criteria: employer reputation, academic reputation, citations and H-index. The latter criterion links the impact (number of citations) to the scope (number of publications) of a researcher’s work. In the university-wide QS World University Rankings released on 8 June 2017, the UvA is placed 58th.