The University of Birmingham has jumped 10 places in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings by subject for Arts & Humanities, thanks to the hard work and commitment of the College of Arts and Law and its academic and support staff.

The University is now ranked 70 in the subject ranking, which covers art, performing arts, design, languages, literature, linguistics, history, philosophy, theology, architecture and archaeology.

The 2019 THE World University Rankings’ table for arts and humanities subjects uses the same rigorous and balanced range of 13 performance indicators as the overall World University Rankings.

Iain Law talking to applicants

These performance indicators are grouped into five areas: teaching (the learning environment); research (volume, income and reputation); citations (research influence); international outlook (staff, students and research); and industry income (knowledge transfer). The methodology is recalibrated for each subject to suit the individual fields.

This year, THE have made a small adjustment to the eligibility criterion for academic staff in the subject tables, which has resulted in more universities being eligible for inclusion. The 2019 arts and humanities ranking has also expanded to include 506 universities, up from 401 last year.

In September (2018) the University climbed 25 places in the 2019 THE World University Rankings to joint 116th globally. This came after a rise in the number of citations and the reputation of research carried out at the University, as well increasing recognition of the quality of teaching. Earlier this year, the University was also named the 6th most innovative institution in the UK and 34th in Europe in the Reuters Top 100: Europe’s Most Innovative Universities.

Pro-Vice Chancellor and Head of the College of Arts and Law, Professor Michael Whitby, says, “Our rise in this Humanities league table is a welcome recognition of the quality of colleagues and of the institutional commitment to our disciplines, the latter being a rarity in the current intellectual climate nationally and internationally.”

Ranked 70th for arts and humanities