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 fifth year in a row, in the 2025 edition of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings.

The Rome university also came first in Italy for Arts & Humanities and Natural Sciences, in 40th and 61st place respectively in the world rankings which are compiled by the London-based global higher education analysts.

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The confirmation of Sapienza's world leadership in classical studies is "a recognition that consolidates the concept of Italy as the homeland of classical culture at a global level", the university's rector Antonella Polimeni said, adding that over the last five years "an increasing number of international students from distant nations and continents have enrolled at Sapienza to study Latin and ancient civilisation."

• Rome's La Sapienza rated top university in Italy

The QS report, now in its 15th edition, analyses the performance of university programmes from almost 1,600 universities across 55 academic disciplines, grouped into five broad thematic sections.

The 2025 list is once again topped by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by Imperial College London, Oxford, Harvard and Cambridge. For full rankings see QS website.