Rome university keeps top place for Classics in world rankings.
La Sapienza in Rome has been rated the top university in the world for Classical Studies and Ancient History, for the sixth year in a row, in the 2026 edition of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings.
The report also rewards the humanities with seventh place overall for both Historical-Artistic Studies and Archaeology, with Archaeology moving from 11th to seventh place and History of Arts jumping from 18th to seventh.
The world rankings, compiled by the London-based global higher education analysts. “consolidate the excellence of our university”, rector Antonella Polimeni said in a statement.
Polimeni hailed the results as “tangible testimony to the constant scientific commitment, passion, and dedication of an academic community capable of preserving a millennia-old cultural heritage, projecting it into the future, through internationally renowned research and teaching that places it consistently at the top of the global rankings.”
The QS report, now in its 16th edition, analyses the performance of university programmes from more than 1,500 universities across 55 academic disciplines, grouped into five broad thematic sections.
The 2026 list is once again topped by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by Imperial College London, Stanford, Oxford and Harvard.
For full rankings see QS website.
