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Deciding what you want to study is one thing, but choosing which university to attend (or which one’s actually best) is a whole new beast. That’s where Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings come in handy. At the end of last year, they released their annual ranking of the best universities in the world for 2026 – and now they’ve just dropped a fresh ranking spotlighting the top institutions across subject areas. Wondering how Australia performed?
Three Aussie universities have ranked in the global top 100 across all subject fields, including the University of Melbourne (37th overall), the University of Sydney (53rd) and Monash University (58th). In 2026, the University of Melbourne ranked as Australia’s best for business and economics, computer science, education studies, law, life sciences, medical and health, as well as psychology.
Meanwhile, the University of Sydney is the best place in Australia to study arts and humanities, UNSW tops the nation for engineering, and the Australian National University in Canberra leads for both physical and social sciences. You can see all the Australian universities that cracked the global top 100 by subject in 2026 below.
University of Melbourne
- Overall ranking - 37th
- Arts and humanities - 44th
- Business and economics - 32nd
- Computer science - 53rd
- Education studies - 16th
- Engineering - 62nd
- Law - 8th
- Life sciences - 33rd
- Medical and health - 20th
- Physical sciences - 75th
- Psychology - 19th
- Social sciences - 50th
University of Sydney
- Overall ranking - 53rd
- Arts and humanities - 42nd
- Business and economics - 52nd
- Computer science - 68th
- Education studies - 26th
- Engineering - 57th
- Law - 46th
- Life sciences - 46th
- Medical and health - 30th
- Physical sciences - 70th
- Psychology - 53rd
- Social sciences - 44th
Monash University
- Overall ranking - 58th
- Arts and humanities - 79th
- Business and economics - 58th
- Computer science - 63rd
- Education studies - 18th
- Engineering - 59th
- Law - 56th
- Life sciences - 53rd
- Medical and health - 27th
- Physical sciences - 90th
- Psychology - 67th
- Social sciences - 70th
Australian National University
- Overall ranking - 73rd
- Arts and humanities - 53rd
- Business and economics - 70th
- Computer science - 83rd
- Law - 39th
- Life sciences - 87th
- Medical and health - 91st
- Physical sciences - 60th
- Psychology - 96th
- Social sciences - 35th
UNSW Sydney
- Overall ranking - 79th
- Business and economics - 88th
- Computer science - 78th
- Education studies - 54th
- Engineering - 46th
- Law - 29th
- Life sciences - 87th
- Medical and health - 64th
- Physical sciences - 83rd
- Psychology - 65th
- Social sciences - 92nd
University of Queensland
- Overall ranking - 80th
- Business and economics - 56th
- Education studies - 39th
- Engineering - 75th
- Life sciences - 40th
- Medical and health - 62nd
- Physical sciences - 96th
- Psychology - 24th
- Social sciences - 83rd
Adelaide University
- Overall ranking - 133rd
- Computer science - 96th
- Education studies - 89th
- Medical and health - 91st
University of Technology Sydney
- Overall ranking - 145th
- Computer science - 92nd
- Education studies - 71st
- Law - 89th
University of Western Australia
- Overall ranking - 153rd
- Life sciences - 77th
- Psychology - 96th
Macquarie University
- Overall ranking - 166th
- Psychology - 89th
Deakin University
- Overall ranking - 201-250
- Education studies - 70th
Queensland University of Technology
- Overall ranking - 201-250
- Law - 62nd