University of Coimbra once again among the best in the world
The latest edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject places the University of Coimbra (UC) among the best higher education institutions in Portugal and the world in various scientific fields.
The University of Coimbra (UC) stands out again in the 15th edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject, which ranks higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide in various scientific fields. The rankings are based on five performance indicators that assess academic reputation, employer reputation and faculty research.
In Portugal, UC is recognised as the best university in Law and Petroleum Engineering.
In addition to its leading position in the two fields mentioned, the ranking also distinguishes the UC as one of the top three Portuguese HEIs in 8 fields: Archaeology, History, Linguistics, Life Sciences, Medicine, Pharmacy & Pharmacology, Psychology, and Sociology.
Out of more than 5,000 universities worldwide, UC is ranked among the top 100 in Petroleum Engineering (51-100), the top 200 in History and Pharmacy & Pharmacology (151-200), and the top 300 in Archaeology (201-260), Linguistics (201-250), Modern Languages (201-250), Civil Engineering (201-275), Medicine (251-300), Law (251-300), Psychology (251-300), and Sociology (251-300).
When analysed by category, UC also strengthens its position among the world’s best in Life Sciences and Medicine (top 300), Natural Sciences, Engineering and Technology, and Arts and Humanities (top 400), and Social Sciences and Management (top 500).
The QS World University Rankings by Subject ranks HEIs by field of knowledge. It assesses institutions worldwide using indicators of academic reputation, employer perception, and citations in scientific publications. This edition evaluated more than 5,200 institutions and 21,000 programmes in 100 countries.
The methodology uses indicators that measure academic reputation based on surveys of international academics, employer reputation, citations per article, and international research collaborations. The QS by Subject methodology combines employer and academic survey data with bibliometric indicators from the Scopus/Elsevier database. In the 2025 edition, the QS World University Rankings by Subject assessed 5,203 institutions worldwide.