Revealed: world's best universities for arts, engineering and sciences

UAE higher education institutions achieve best performance to date in QS World University Rankings by Subject

Best universities for Arts and Humanities: 1. University of Oxford (pictured), 2. Harvard University, 3. University of Cambridge, =4. University of California, Berkeley, =4 Yale University. Getty Images

Best universities for Arts and Humanities: 6. Stanford University, 7. New York University NYU (pictured), 8. Princeton University, 9. University of California, Los Angeles, 10. Columbia University. Getty Images

Best universities for Engineering and Technology: 1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT (pictured), 2. Stanford University, 3. University of Cambridge, =4. ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, =4. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Getty Images

Best universities for Engineering and Technology: 6. University of Oxford, 7. University of California, Berkeley (pictured), 8. Imperial College London, 9. National University of Singapore, 10. Tsinghua University. Getty Images

Best universities for Life Sciences and Medicine: 1. Harvard University (pictured), 2. University of Oxford, 3. Stanford University, 4. University of Cambridge, 5. Johns Hopkins University. Getty Images

Best universities for Life Sciences and Medicine: 6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT, 7. University of California, San Francisco, 8. Karolinska Institutet, 9. University of California, Los Angeles, 10. UCL (pictured). Getty Images

Best universities for Natural Sciences: 1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT, 2. Stanford University (pictured), 3. Harvard University, 4. University of Cambridge, 5. University of Oxford. Getty Images

Best universities for Natural Sciences: 6. ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, 7. Caltech (pictured), 8. University of California, Berkeley, 9. Imperial College London, 10. Princeton University. Wikimedia Commons

Best universities for Social Sciences and Management: 1. Harvard University, 2. The London School of Economics and Political Science (pictured), 3. Stanford University, 4. University of Oxford, 5. University of Cambridge. Wikimedia Commons

Best universities for Social Sciences and Management: 6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT, 7. University of California, Berkeley, 8. Yale University, 9. National University of Singapore (pictured), 10. University of Chicago. Wikimedia Commons

British and American universities lead in the fields of arts, engineering and sciences, according to a new global ranking.

The QS World University Rankings by Subject includes in this year's edition familiar names renowned for their academic excellence.

The University of Oxford dominates the arts field overall, taking top ranking in disciplines such as history and English language.

Cambridge University was top in two subjects but had more top 20 placements than any other university in the world.

Meanwhile, NYU has the world's top philosophy department and Notre Dame was first in theology and religious studies.

MIT, the renowned research institution in New England, leads the way in engineering and natural sciences.

It took the top slot in no less than 12 disciplines, including chemistry, computer science, engineering and mathematics.

MIT also placed second in four subject areas: accounting and finance; biological sciences; earth and marine sciences; and materials science.

Research citations and major global surveys of employers and academics are used to compile the QS subject rankings.

QS also ranks universities overall and MIT has topped the list nine years in a row.

National University of Singapore was considered Asia's best university last year, while King Abdulaziz University took the top spot in the Arab region, according to QS.

Higher education institutions in the UAE recorded their best performances to date, with eight new departments entering the global university table.

QS World Rankings – Overall 

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Getty Images

2. Stanford University. Getty Images

3. Harvard University. Getty Images

4. California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Getty Images

5. University of Oxford. Getty Images

6. ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Getty Images

7. University of Cambridge. Getty Images

8. Imperial College London. Getty Images

9. University of Chicago. Getty Images

10. UCL. Getty Images