Sapienza is the world’s top university for Classics & Ancient History and ranks among the top ten for Archaeology and History of Art. This is the first time an Italian university has placed three subjects in the top ten of the QS World University Rankings by Subject, published on March 25.

The 2026 edition of the report confirms, for the sixth consecutive year, Sapienza's top ranking in classical studies – the only such global ranking held by an Italian university – and recognises the humanities with 7th place overall for both art history and archaeology, with Archaeology rising from 11th to 7th place and History of Arts jumping from 18th to 7th.

“The new QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026 reaffirms Sapienza's excellence,” emphasises Rector Antonella Polimeni, “with the confirmation of our world-leading position in Classics & Ancient History – achieved for the sixth consecutive year – and our entry into the top 10 in Archaeology and History of Art. “These results,” adds the Rector, “are tangible proof of the constant scientific commitment, passion and dedication of an academic community capable of preserving a millennia-old cultural heritage and projecting it into the future through research and education of an international calibre that firmly places it at the very top of the world rankings.”

Sapienza has also improved in terms of the number of disciplines ranked in the world’s top 50, rising from four in 2025 to 6six in the 2026 rankings just released; in particular, Classics & Ancient History (1), Archaeology (7), History of Art (7) and Physics & Astronomy (38), whilst Modern Languages (42) and Pharmacy & Pharmacology (48) have entered the top 50.

Among the top 100, Sapienza ranks first in Italy with 26 subjects. In terms of total entries in the ranking, it ranks second nationally with 46 subjects.

The subject-specific ranking compiled by QS is divided into five broad subject areas, covering a total of 55 subjects. The ranking takes into account the following indicators: academic reputation and reputation among employers based on the opinions of recruiters worldwide; citations per paper; the use of the ‘H-Index’ to measure citation productivity and the impact of publications; and finally, the International Research Network (IRN) regarding co-authors of international research publications. The weighting of the indicators varies by individual subject and broad subject area. To compile the 2026 ranking, over 6,277 institutions were considered, of which 1,912 were included in the ranking.