Southampton positioned 30 in the world rankings for Earth and Marine Sciences

This ranking has continued to improve in the last few years from 47 in 2012, to 38 in 2013 and now 30 in 2014.  This is recognition of the dedication and teaching excellence of our academics, our world-class facilities and our unique Ocean and Earth Science water-front campus. Academic reputation scored particularly well.

Professor Tim Minshull, Head of Ocean and Earth Science commented 'This achievement is recognition of the dedication and hard work of many colleagues, whose commitment makes Southampton an exciting place to work and study'

This ranking acknowledges the highly regarded position of Ocean and Earth Southampton and is symbolic of a great 12 months for our students, teaching and academic reputation; Top marks in the 2013 National Student Survey in all disciplines, scoring 100% in many areas. Hannah Brown graduated with first class with honours in Marine Biology and became world number one in wild water Kayaking and is headed for Rio in 2016. Alex Bromhead, a recent MSci Geology graduate was named ‘Best Earth Science Student of the Year' at the prestigious SET Awards, Europe's most important awards for science, engineering and technology undergraduates, and PhD student Laura Hepburn won NERC's inaugural short article and photography competition with her piece detailing her first research voyage to study underwater hydrothermal vents.

Academics were also recognised with Emeritus Professor Paul Tyler receiving an MBE in the Queen's New Year's Honours as a result of his research into deep-sea biology. Dr Rachael James has been invited to be the European Association of Geochemistry (EAG) Distinguished Lecturer for 2014. Professor Damon Teagle received the prestigious Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award and Professor Martin Palmer was named a Geochemical Fellow by the Geochemical Society and European Association of Geochemistry (EAG). Not to mention the high impact cutting-edge research stories that have been hitting the world headlines in the last twelve months.

For the third edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject, over 3000 universities were evaluated and 689 institutions were ranked in total. 130 million of citations attributions were analysed and a 10,639 programs.  For further information and details of the rankings, please visit  www.topuniversities.com.  

Potential undergraduates are able to compare this elite grouping of the world's top universities by subject and create their own personalised ranking based on what matters to them most. QS World University Rankings by Subject 2013/14 comparison.

The wheel chart below illustrates the performance of University of Southampton and shows that Ocean and Earth Science performed particularly well,  ranking 30 in the world's most elite universities.