FOUR Scottish institutions have been including in a new worldwide league table of the best university courses.
Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews and Glasgow School of Art were all featured in the latest edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject - which judges the best courses form the world's top 200 universities.
In the arts and humanities, Edinburgh came third for linguistics, 11th for English, 15th for philosophy and 26th for languages while St Andrews was ranked 14th for philosophy. Glasgow School of Art came joint 10th for art and design.
In engineering and technology, Edinburgh was ranked 14th for computer science while in life sciences and medicine the university was ranked joint 9th for veterinary science and 22nd for biology while Glasgow came 7th in veterinary science.
An Edinburgh University spokeswoman said: "It is a tribute to the hard work and innovation of our academic and professional support staff."
The QS subject rankings this year are the largest ever of its kind involving the opinion of 85,062 academics and 41,910 employers as well as analysis of 17.3 million research papers and over 100 million citations.
The 79 UK universities featured in the rankings secured 11.2 per cent of the places across all disciplines and 14 per cent of the top 50 spots available - second only to institutions in America.
Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology took most of the top places, leading in 21 subjects between them. However, UK universities have improved their positions overall, with six separate institutions leading in at least one subject.
John O'Leary, a member of the QS Global Academic Advisory Board, said: "UK universities show up well in virtually all the subjects."
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