On 22 March, the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023 were released. WUR rose in the rankings in the field of Environmental Sciences, from 5th to 2nd place. 'I am very proud that WUR scores very high in this subject area,' responds Bram de Vos, director of Environmental Sciences.
For these rankings, 1594 universities were evaluated based on 54 different subject areas. As in previous years, Wageningen University & Research ranked 1st worldwide for Agriculture & Forestry. Within the Netherlands, WUR also ended in the top position in Biological Sciences, Development Studies and Environmental Sciences.
Globally, WUR moved up three places in the field of Environmental Sciences and ended in 2nd place. What stands out is the 100 per cent score for international cooperation. De Vos: 'This result is the combination of everyone's vast commitment, the academic quality of Wageningen University & Research, our huge international network, and the impact of our contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals. We cooperate across Europe through a large number of EU projects, and globally with our PhD students. The challenge now is to keep doing this well!'
To establish the ranking, QS World University Rankings analysed more than 16.4 million academic publications from 2016 to 2020. QS also looked at how often the articles were cited by other scientists, showing the importance of these studies in the field. Other than that, the rankings are based on surveys and a measure of international cooperation.
| Subjects | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Natural Sciences | 112 | 128 | 124 |
| Life Sciences & Medicine | 59 | 43 | 53 |
| Engineering & Technology | |||
| Environmental Sciences | 5 | 5 | 2 |
| Development Studies | 13 | 12 | 8 |
| Social Science and Management | 331 | 265 | 317 |
| Veterinary | 17 | 15 | 24 |
| Agriculture & Forestry | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Geology | 49 | 41 | 44 |
| Geophysics | 39 | 35 | 42 |
