Purdue Agriculture ranks No. 3 in U.S. in 2026 QS World University subject rankings

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University’s College of Agriculture maintained its stellar No. 3 ranking nationally and sixth globally in the just-released 2026 QS World University rankings of the top academic programs.

Purdue Agriculture was highlighted among the world’s top universities for its program and scholarship strengths in employability and research and discovery — factors that placed it in the U.S. behind only University of California, Davis and Cornell University.

“Purdue Agriculture continues to be recognized nationally and globally because our faculty lead groundbreaking research and innovations that will shape the future of health, food security and sustainability as well as advance student learning so that our alumni will carry this mantle forward for generations to come,” said Bernie Engel, the Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture.

World-renowned faculty lead Purdue Agriculture’s diverse majors in the fields of agricultural, food, life, animal and natural resource sciences and agricultural economics. Students are engaged in learning that occurs in classrooms, laboratories, fields, farms, forests, skies and lakes in the United States and countries around the world.

Purdue Agriculture’s showing among 53 U.S. universities also is driven by programs such as the heralded agricultural and biological engineering major. Jointly led by the colleges of Agriculture and Engineering, the program was No. 1 for a fifth straight year in the 2025 rankings of top graduate schools by U.S. News & World Report.

For the QS World University Rankings by Subject for 2026, Purdue Agriculture is part of the Life Sciences and Medicine category. That grouping includes nine academic disciplines ranging from biological sciences, pharmacy and pharmacology, psychology and nursing to medicine, dentistry, veterinary science, and agriculture and forestry.

Purdue Agriculture is a major component of One Health, a university-led initiative to tackle the complex challenges with real-world impact at the intersection of human, animal and plant health.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 106,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 57,000 at our main campus locations in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 14 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its integrated, comprehensive Indianapolis urban expansion; the Mitch Daniels School of Business; Purdue Computes; and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.