As the new academic year approaches, it’s welcome news that Stellenbosch University (SU) continues to feature among the leading higher education institutions globally in several subject areas, from Arts and Humanities to Medical and Health (formerly Clinical and Health), Education Studies (formerly Education), Law, Engineering, Life Sciences and Social Sciences. 

This is according to the 2026 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings (WUR) by Subject released on Wednesday (21 January 2026).

SU ranks among the world’s top 175 in both Law and Medical and Health, top 200 in Education Studies, top 250 in Arts and Humanities, top 300 in Social Sciences, top 400 in both Psychology and Life Sciences, and top 500 in Business and Economics, and Engineering.

The university improved on its position in Arts and Humanities, Business and Economics, Medical and Health, Engineering and Psychology from last year. It occupies the same position in Life Sciences, Physical Science and Social Sciences. Remarkably, SU remains among the world’s best institutions in Education Studies and Law, even after dropping a few places.

In South Africa, SU is in joint second place in Medical and Health (with the University of the Witwatersrand), Engineering (with the University of the Witwatersrand) and Life Sciences (with the Universities of the Witwatersrand and Pretoria). It is ranked third outright in Arts and Humanities and Education Studies, while sharing third place in Psychology with the University of the Witwatersrand and North-West University, and in Computer Science with the Universities of Cape Town, Witwatersrand, Pretoria and North-West University.

Overall, the institution features among the top 300 universities in the world in five of the 11 subject categories on the THE WUR list.

Commenting on SU’s latest achievement, Prof Sibusiso Moyo, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Internationalisation, said that SU aspires to be Africa’s leading research-intensive university, globally recognised as excellent, inclusive and innovative, and to advance knowledge in service of society.  “We are proud of our academic staff and support services for pursing excellence in everything they do. This ensures that we deliver on our learning, teaching and research agenda and enhance our graduate outcomes and attributes.” 

Indicators

The subject tables employ the same the same range of 18 performance indicators used in the overall THE World University Rankings 2025. These are then combined to provide scores under the five categories of teaching (teaching reputation, student-to-staff ratio, doctorate-to-bachelor ratio, doctorate-to-staff ratio and institutional income), research environment (research reputation, income, and productivity), research quality (citation impact, research strength, research excellence, and influence), international outlook (international staff, students, and co-authorship), and industry (income from industry partnerships and patents).

Continued excellence

Over the last few years, SU has featured regularly on the Times Higher Education World University Subject Rankings, QS World University Rankings by Subject and the Shanghai Ranking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects. These rankings all use different methodologies and indicators to determine universities’ position on their ranking.