On July 22, Times Higher Education (THE) released the China Subject Ratings for the first time. Based on the subject classification of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China, and with reference to universities around the world, each subject of each university listed is rated from A+ to C-. The first time of ratings in 2020 includes 1,355 universities worldwide and 80 universities in Chinese mainland. 45 subjects in Tsinghua University have been rated A+, including Design, Fine Arts, and Art Theory of the Academy of Arts & Design (AADTHU).

Guided by Tsinghua University's master plan for building a world-class university, the Academy of Arts & Design carries forward the academy's fine tradition, exerts its disciplinary advantages, aims at the global strategic development goal of building a world-famous art and design school, and strengthens the combination of art and science. With all these efforts, it has achieved remarkable results in international cooperation and exchange, international education, and global competence training.

The subject ratings have been conducted through evaluating the performance of 89 subjects across 12 pillar fields such as arts, economics, engineering and medicine, covering five key fields: teaching (learning environment), research (publication amount, income and reputation), citation (research impact), international perspective (international teachers, students and international co-authors), and industry income (knowledge transfer).

Featuring in the Times Higher Education Rankings 2020 is a must for the subject ratings. The World University Rankings 2020, the 2020 Global Academic Reputation Survey, and Scopus created by Elsevier serve as the data sources.

Source of partial data: the official website of Times Higher Education