Faculty success recognised in THE global subject rankings

09 Feb 2026

The Faculty of Humanities’ excellence in research and teaching has been acknowledged in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject for 2026.

The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings by Subject (WURS) for 2026 have been released, covering 148 individual disciplines under 11 broad subject areas, five of which are taught across our Faculty. The methodology judges universities based on five core pillars of evaluation: teaching, research environment, research quality, international outlook and industry.

Social Sciences was the strongest-performing subject area across the University as a whole, climbing five places to rank 32nd globally and 6th in the UK. This subject area straddles SEED and SoSS, covering Communication and Media Studies, Politics and International Studies, Sociology, and Geography.

Two other subject areas taught in our Schools ranked in the top 50 globally. Arts and Humanities, taught in SALC, improved by two places to rank 41st globally and 8th in the UK, and Business and Economics, taught across AMBS and SoSS, ranked 41st globally and placed 6th in the UK.

Education Studies and Law placed 13th and 16th in the UK, and 99th and 92nd globally, respectively.

The University of Manchester currently ranks 8th in the UK and 56th in the world in the THE World University Rankings for 2026. The prestigious rankings evaluate more than 2,000 institutions from 115 countries and territories.

While our Social Sciences and Arts and Humanities subject areas performed strongly in this year’s rankings, as part of From Manchester for the world, our Faculty will continue to take action to improve our research and teaching in all areas and how this is captured in a range of global rankings.