Wednesday 8 March 2017
Otago welcomes world university subject ranking results
The University of Otago welcomed today’s release of the 2017 QS World University Rankings by Subject, in which Otago
ranked among the top 50 institutions in the world in five subject areas and among the top 100 in 12.
Otago was judged to be among the world’s top 10 universities for the study of Sport and sport-related disciplines,
placing 7th internationally. This was the highest ranking achieved by any New Zealand university for any subject area in
the 2017 rankings.
The University also had four further subjects ranked inside the top 50, comprising Anatomy (24th in QS’s inaugural
Anatomy measure), Dentistry (29th), Archaeology (40th) and Development Studies (44th).
Anthropology, Geography, History, Law, Medicine, Performing Arts, and Psychology were also ranked in the top 100
internationally. Otago also had a further nine subjects ranked in the 101-150 band world-wide, and nine in the 151-200
band.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Vernon Squire says the results are a pleasing independent acknowledgment of
the breadth and depth of the University’s teaching and research excellence across a range of disciplines.
“This assessment, which I understand involves consideration of over 4400 universities worldwide, is a welcome
recognition of what we have achieved in our educational offerings so far across many areas,” Professor Squire says.
The QS subject rankings are arrived at on the basis of a combination of factors including Academic Reputation (how
academics from other universities rate a university in a particular subject area), Employer Reputation (how employers
rate a university in a particular subject area), and citations (the extent to which the work of an academic in a subject
area is quoted or referenced in the work of others).
Also new for 2017 are global rankings in ‘faculty’ areas (aggregations of subject areas) used by QS. Within these Otago
is:
• 66th in the world for life sciences and medicine
• 88th in the world for arts and humanities
• 89th in the world for social sciences and management