Australia remains a popular destination for international students looking to make a career in their chosen area of study. Some of the key subjects that Australian univer offer include Business, management and entrepreneurship, Engineering, automation and technology, Architecture, construction and planning, Creative arts and design, Health, medicine and psychology, Information Technology (IT) and computing, Law and paralegal studies, Personal care and fitness, Sciences and mathematics.
Australia’s universities are among the top worldwide institutions, delivering world-class education to overseas students.
The 2024 QS World University Rankings by Subject have reconfirmed Australia’s position as a world-leading study destination, with nine Australian universities ranked in the top 10 globally across 17 different subject areas.
Global higher education analysts QS Quacquarelli Symonds have now released the 2024 QS World University Rankings by Subject.
This year’s rankings provide an independent analysis of more than 16,400 university programs offered by more than 1,500 universities located across 95 countries and territories.
The programs analysed for the 2024 rankings cover 56 different ‘subjects’ (areas of study) in five broad faculty categories: Arts and Humanities, Engineering and Technology, Life Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences and Management.
How did Australia perform in the 2024 Subject Rankings?
Overall, nine Australian universities featured in the world’s top 10 rankings across 17 different subjects (study areas), three more than last year.
Four Australian universities are in the top 10 universities worldwide for having the most top 100 entries across all study areas.
Within that top 10 list, two Australian universities beat all other universities worldwide with their number of top 100 rankings across the entire 56 subjects (areas of study) analysed: The University of Melbourne (53 study areas) and The University of Sydney (52 study areas).
Three other Australian universities ranked in the top two globally for individual study areas: Curtin University (Engineering – Mineral and Mining); Monash University (Pharmacy and Pharmacology) and The University of Queensland (Sports-related subjects).
Monash University also featured in the top 100 globally across 45 different study areas, while The University of Queensland featured in the top 100 for 43 study areas.
The 2024 edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject features 55 individual subjects across five broad subject areas. 1,559 institutions have been ranked across these subjects this year, with 64 universities debuting (i.e. having not been included in the 2023 edition).
14 of these are completely new entrants making their first appearance in any QS ranking, including Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), Osaka Metropolitan University, and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Music is the one new subject to be added to this year’s rankings, while the data science & artificial intelligence ranking has been expanded and has 51 new institutions included this year. If you are not sure what you want to study, studyaustralia.gov.au has a comprehensive guide to give you more information on popular areas of study and the types of careers they can lead to.
