“UK social science is the best in the world”, says leading academic

“UK social science is the best in the world,” said Professor Michael Harloe of the Campaign for Social Science. Speaking to a large audience of social scientists at a Campaign roadshow at the University of Warwick, on 16 May, Professor Harloe said:

“When the newly-issued QS World University Rankings 2010 are adjusted for population and other size factors, UK academic social science clearly comes out even better than the otherwise leader, the USA, on a range of excellence indicators. Our challenge is to keep it there. We have to ensure that social science is better identified, understood and valued, so it gets the funding resources it needs to sustain its world class position.”

The QS World University Rankings is an annual league table of the top 600 universities in the world and is regarded as the best-known and respected ranking of its kind. The rankings are based on four key pillars – research, teaching, employability and internationalisation. The current rankings for 2010 were issued at the beginning of May 2011.

These findings will help to boost the work of the Campaign for Social Science which is seeking to demonstrate the critical impact of the social sciences on policy making and society and to raise awareness of the contribution it makes. Speakers at the roadshows have being demonstrating the contribution that social science makes to understanding the challenges facing families and communities and the impact of climate change, economic recession and social unrest.