On September 15, the 2026 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS), released by ShanghaiRanking, placed Tongji University’s Civil Engineering first in the world once again. This marks the tenth consecutive year Tongji’s Civil Engineering has topped the GRAS chart since 2017, making it one of only four disciplines in mainland China to hold the global No. 1 position for an uninterrupted decade.

The ranking covers 57 subjects across five major fields—Natural Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences—with more than 2,000 universities from 96 countries and regions, representing nearly 20,000 subject entries.

The GRAS evaluates disciplines through a series of objective academic indicators and third-party data, which are grouped into five categories—World-Class Faculty, World-Class Output, High-Quality Research, Research Impact, and International Collaboration. The World-Class Faculty category recognizes International Academic Award Laureates, Highly Cited Researchers, Chief Editors of International Academic Journals, and International Academic Organization Leadership, offering a clear measure of a discipline’s ability to support researcher training, joint research, and international partnerships.

The sustained leadership reflects long-term commitment and continuous disciplinary development. Over the past years, the discipline has focused on major national needs and frontier topics in areas such as resilient infrastructure, low-carbon construction and digital engineering. Its education and research have evolved and improved through sustained efforts in undergraduate and postgraduate training, basic research, major engineering practice, and cross-border collaboration.

Looking ahead, Tongji Civil Engineering will further develop digital-intelligent, green, and integrated approaches, strengthen interdisciplinary cooperation, and raise the quality of talent cultivation and innovation. The ten-year result is not a finish line but a starting point for addressing complex infrastructure challenges with partners in China and abroad.