Argentina maintains its presence on the international academic scene, with outstanding performance in Arts and Humanitiesalthough in a context of growing global competition that impacts disciplines considered strategic. This is shown by the 2026 edition of the QS Rankings by subject.
The ranking, which evaluates more than 21,000 academic programs from 1,900 universities in more than 100 countries, analyzes 55 disciplines grouped into five large areas: Arts and Humanities, Engineering and Technology, Life Sciences, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences.
In the last edition, 16 Argentine institutions They added 134 appearances. Of that total, 43 positions improved, 27 fell and 44 remained stable compared to the previous edition. The remaining 20 correspond to new incorporations. In general terms, there is a 12% net improvement.
The country also maintains 18 presences within the global top 100 —same as the previous year— and six in the top 50one less than in the 2025 edition.
This year, the ranking is headed by Oxford University, who managed to surpass Harvard, now located in second place. The first 10 positions are disputed by universities from the United States and the United Kingdom. Third place goes to the English University of Cambridge, followed by the Americans Stanford, Yale, Columbia and the University of California (UCB). Place 8 goes to University College London (UCL), followed by the University of Edinburgh and completing the top 10 is New York University (NYU).
At the regional level, the best performance goes to Brazil, which ranks 31 institutions, has 79 entries in the top 100 by subject and improved by 114 positions compared to the 2025 edition. It is followed by Mexico, which has 58 entries in the top 100 positions. Third place goes to Chilewhich has 51 entries, then Colombia, which contributes 31. After the Argentinawhich maintained 18 entries in the top 100, there are Peru, with 6, and Ecuador, with 3.
The strong point of the Argentina It is registered in Arts and Humanities, where the country shows sustained growth in recent years. In this edition, six universities are among the 500 best in the world in this area, twice as many as in 2021 and one more than in 2025.
The University of Buenos Aires once again dominates the national performance: concentrates about a third of the 134 Argentine appearances and leads in 42 areas of knowledge. It is also the only institution in the country with disciplines within the top 50 globally..
Your best discipline is modern languages, where it ranks 22nd, which is an improvement from the 32nd spot it held in 2025. However, it has yet to return to the top 20, a position it reached only once, when it ranked 16th in 2019.
In total, the UBA has five disciplines among the 50 best in the world and 12 within the top 100. Modern Languages (22nd) are added Petroleum Engineering (35°), Right (34°), Anthropology (43°) e Art History (range 26-50).
It also maintains a presence in the top 100 in areas such as Architecture, History, Communication and Media and Veterinary Medicine (all in 51st place), as well as in Politics and International Studies (99th), Sociology (64th) and Art and Design (74th).
“These results demonstrate, once again, the international level of the University of Buenos Aires. Despite the crisis we are going through, our professors, researchers and non-teachers are the ones who make it possible to maintain a quality recognized worldwide. That is why it is important to solve the problem of salaries and university financing“said its rector, Ricardo Gelpi. This was the claim for which the teaching unions decided to stop all last week. The unions denounced a loss of purchasing power in teaching salaries close to 40% in the last two years, demanded the reopening of joint ventures and questioned the lack of application of the University Financing Law.
In this edition, the UBA also expanded its presence with the incorporation of new areas such as Statistics and Operational Research, Archaeology, Art History, Accounting and Finance, Social Policy and Administration and Materials Scienceso the institution states that with evaluation in 48 of the 55 disciplines, “the university reaffirms a transversal presence in the production of knowledge on a global scale.”
The National University of La Plata It is positioned as the second Argentine institution with the greatest presence, with 25 ranked disciplines and the greatest number of improvements compared to the previous year. The podium is completed by National University of Córdobawith 18 entries, showing progress in the general areas of Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences and Administration.
There are also new entries to the top 100: the Torcuato Di Tella University, with the International Studies discipline in position 100, and the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina (UCA)with Theology, Divinity and Religious Studies in the 51-100 range.
For its part, the Austral University remains the private management institution that leads in the most disciplines in Argentina, with eight consecutive years of leadership in Law and Medicinefive in Business and Management and three in Philosophy. In the business area, it managed to surpass the UBA, ranking 131st globally.
“Being the Argentine private university that leads in the largest number of disciplines in the QS by Subject reflects the solidity of a consistent academic project, which does not respond to an isolated achievement, but to work sustained over time. This result expresses our ability to combine excellence, stability and growth in different areas of knowledge, with a clear international projection. It is also an invitation to reinforce our responsibility to generate a significant impact in our country and in the region, considering the trust that society has in us,” considered its rector, Julian Rodriguez.
From QS, meanwhile, they highlight that the changes must be read within the framework of increasingly intense international competition. “This year’s results reflect an increasingly competitive global higher education landscape, in which good results elsewhere can affect representation in specific disciplines,” he said. Ben Sowtersenior vice president of the consulting firm.
He pointed out that Argentina was no longer represented in areas like Dentistry, Marketing, Nursing and Music, Anatomy and Physiology, Classics and Ancient History, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and Civil and Structural Engineering: all areas in which it had a presence last year. And he considered: “Changes in representation do not necessarily indicate a decline in performance, but rather the pace at which other institutions around the world are advancing in these fields.”
