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U.S. higher education institutions lead the world in interdisciplinary science, according to a new ranking of interdisciplinary strength in undergraduate and postgraduate education programs and research centers.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology tops the Times Higher Education Interdisciplinary Science Rankings 2025, followed by Stanford University. The California Institute of Technology, Duke University and the University of Minnesota all make the top 10 in fourth, fifth and sixth place, respectively. (Times Higher Education is Inside Higher Ed’s parent company).
The University of California, Santa Barbara, is eighth and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor takes the 10th spot.
Rounding out the top 10 is the National University of Singapore in third place, Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands in seventh, and Nanyang Technological University, also in Singapore, in ninth position.
The U.S. is the most represented nation among the top 100 universities, with 16 colleges.
The ISR was created in association with the Schmidt Science Fellows, an initiative of Schmidt Sciences, delivered in partnership with the Rhodes Trust, to recognize and incentivize interdisciplinary science.
“To answer the world’s toughest questions—whether it’s scaling fusion energy or advancing quantum computing—we need to think differently,” Eric Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Sciences, said in a press release.
“The Interdisciplinary Science Rankings recognizes universities that are advancing the practice of science for the next century and beyond through new institutions, emerging technologies, and effective teaching.”
The ISR measures universities based on three weighted pillars, each representing a stage in the life cycle of a research project: inputs, process and outputs. Each pillar is further divided into metrics that measure different aspects of that stage.
The inputs pillar, for example, accounts for 19 percent of an institution’s overall scoring and is made up of its interdisciplinary science research funding and industry funding. The outputs pillar has the greatest weighting, 65 percent, and is comprised of the quality of interdisciplinary science research and an institution’s global reputation, among other metrics.
More information about the ISR methodology is available on the THE website.
