The QS World University Rankings show U.S. universities hold the top spot for virtually all subjects.

Harvard, Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology dominate in engineering and technology; natural sciences; and social sciences and management.

Memorial Hall, Harvard University (Image: Wikimedia Commons, Jacob Rus)

Arts and humanities and life sciences and medicine are the exceptions, with two UK universities – Oxford and Cambridge – in the top three for those areas.

The rankings group 48 disciplines into the five broad subject categories. They highlight the best universities in each category using research citations and surveys of employers and academics. In total, 1,200 universities in 78 locations are listed.

Outside of the top slots, Asian universities also get a good showing, in particular Nanyang Technological University Singapore and the National University of Singapore.

A view of the Nanyang Technological University campus in Singapore. (Image: REUTERS/Edgar Su)

Western universities have dominated the top tier of higher education tables for years, but providers in Asia are becoming increasingly visible players in the elite and funding for education is on the rise.

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Original content can be found at the website of World Economic Forum: These are the world's best universities by subject

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