Subject excellence
2026 QS World University Rankings by Subject
We have 16 subjects in the top 1% of the world in the 2026 QS World University Rankings by Subject.
Top 1% Arts and Humanities
We ranked in the top 1% of the world for the broad Arts and Humanities area.
Learn more about our Faculty of Humanities and Social Science.
43rd Library and Information Management
We ranked 43rd globally in Library and Information Management.
Learn more about our Library and Information Management programme.
73rd Linguistics
We ranked 73rd in the world for Linguistics.
Learn more about our Language Sciences programme.
90th= English Language and Literature
We ranked 90th equal in the world for English Language and Literature.
Learn more about our English Literature programme.
91st Law
We ranked 91st in the world for Law. This reflects the results of the THE World University Rankings by Subject.
You can learn more about our Law programme.
Other subject areas in the Top 150
We ranked in the top 100 for Hospitality and Leisure Management and in the top 150 for 5 other subjects:
Read more about THE subject rankings
2026 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings by Subject
We are in the top 1% of the world’s universities for 2 subjects, and in the top 2% for another 6 subjects in the 2026 THE World University Rankings by Subject.
Top 1% in Law and Education
We were ranked top in New Zealand and top 1% globally for Law, and in the top 1% globally for Education in 2026.
You can learn more about our Law programme and more about the THE subject ranking.
You can learn more about our Education programme and more about the THE subject ranking.
Other international subject area rankings
The 2025 Shanghai Ranking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects ranked us 50th in the world and 1st in New Zealand for Artificial Intelligence.
You can learn more about our AI programme and Te Whiri Kawe—Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.
We are also ranked by the US News and World Report Best Global Universities which ranks both Arts and Humanities and Geosciences in the top 1% globally.