...While Philosophy Department Rises to 30th

The Philosophy Department rose to 30th place in the recently released 2023 QS World University Rankings, considered to be among the most influential and prestigious surveys of higher education institutions worldwide. The department had been 41st in last year’s rankings.

Prepared by the London-based Quacquarelli Symonds, the report examines the academic reputation, employer reputation, and research impact of more than 13,000 individual university programs to configure this year’s rankings of 48 academic disciplines.

Among American universities, BC Philosophy placed 12th—a one-level improvement over last year’s ranking—and was one of just two American Catholic institutions in the top 30 overall, along with University of Notre Dame. BC was rated ahead of Boston, Brown, Columbia, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, and Northwestern universities, and is the only philosophy department within an American Jesuit university ranked among the top 50 worldwide.

“The QS recognition is significant and primarily the result of the hard work and great dedication of our faculty, students, and staff,” said Joseph Professor of Catholic Philosophy Dermot Moran, the department chair. “But it is also due, I believe, to the distinctiveness of BC’s approach to philosophy, in which we are very focused on understanding its central role in the intellectual and moral formation of our students. We also appreciate how philosophy factors into the framing and reframing of the larger and enduring questions of our times.”

The department specializes in the history of philosophy, continental philosophy, and practical philosophy, and each area is explored in a broad humanistic and interdisciplinary way to offer resources for deep reflection on contemporary questions and concerns. It consists of more than 30 full-time faculty members, with visiting scholars from the United States and abroad.

—Phil Gloudemans