Texas A&M Department of Political Science Ranked 13th In The World
ShanghaiRanking’s 2021 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects places the Department of Political Science in the top 20 programs in the world.
By Tiarra Drisker ‘25
The Department of Political Science at Texas A&M University ranked 13th out of 400 globally on ShanghaiRanking’s 2021 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects.
The ranking is representative of the political science department’s research output, research influence, research quality, international collaboration, and international academic awards.
ShanghaiRanking is better known for its Academic Ranking of World Universities that was first published in 2003. The ranking was originally created as an indicator of prestige for Chinese universities, but over time, ShanghaiRanking has become one of the most trustworthy global university rankings in the world.
Scott Cook, a professor in the Department of Political Science said, “It’s excellent to see our department ranked so highly, as this recognizes the high-quality research that our graduate students and faculty have produced in recent years. We have a terrific group of staff, students, and faculty in our department, so it’s great to see that reflected in external evaluations.”
Robert Adcock, assistant professor of political science at George Washington University, stated in his journal, History of Political Thought, that political science only recently emerged as a discipline in American universities. The origins of political science can be traced back much further than its emergence as a discipline in American universities in the late 19th century. Much of modern political science is based on the beliefs of Greek philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato. The Texas A&M Department of Political Science uses these core beliefs to bring about better governed societies and civil governments through their students.
Michelle Taylor-Robinson, a professor of political science at Texas A&M, said that she is hopeful the ranking will help recruit top students to the department’s Ph.D. program as well.
“This is an exciting development for the College of Liberal Arts and the Department of Political Science as we are still a quite young program in political science compared to the other top-ranked programs,” she said. “This ranking should also help us to recruit top new faculty. In addition, it adds prestige to the undergraduate Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees offered by Texas A&M’s Department of Political Science that are earned by our many, many undergraduate majors.”
ShangaiRanking’s ranking of Texas A&M’s political science department will have a positive impact on the College of Liberal Arts as a whole.
“The ranking shows that Texas A&M is a terrific place to study political science,” Matthew Fuhrmann, a professor of political science at Texas A&M, said. “It’s also a place producing impactful research on important national and international issues ranging from the role of media in politics to political economy to mitigating the risk of armed conflict.”