Want to study an engineering or technology subject at one of the world’s top engineering schools? The QS World University Rankings by Faculty highlights the world’s top universities in five major subject areas: arts & humanities, engineering & technology, life sciences & medicine, natural sciences, and social sciences & management. These rankings are compiled using data on research citations, combined with the results of QS’s major global surveys of academics and employers. Read on to discover this year’s 10 top universities for engineering and technology.
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
It should come as no surprise that the highest ranked institution in our overall rankings for the past four years in a row is also ranked at the head of the world’s top engineering schools. MIT has helped to advance the digital age, having developed the predecessors to modern computing and networking technologies. It has recently been conducting important research in climate change and electromagnetics.
2. Stanford University
Stanford University is well known for its entrepreneurial spirit, and has also garnered a strong reputation among the world’s top engineering schools, thanks to innovative research in the fields of engineering and technology. In the 1940s and 50s, Dean of Engineering Frederick Terman encouraged graduates and faculty members to set up their own companies, which led to him becoming known as the “Father of Silicon Valley”.
3. University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is ranked joint 3rd in the world this year along with Stanford. It has a research partnership with MIT known as the Cambridge–MIT Institute, which has led to notable studies such as the “silent aircraft initiative”. Meanwhile the internationally recognized “Cambridge Phenomenon” refers to the outburst of technology, life sciences and service companies in and around Cambridge since 1960.
4. National University of Singapore (NUS)
Climbing 10 places to rank 12th in the overall world rankings this year, the National University of Singapore (NUS) has firmly established itself as a world-leading university, with its largest faculty being engineering. NUS has more than 3,000 research staff and 21 university-level research institutes and centers in various fields. Its entrepreneurship division, NanoSpark, works with faculty members and investors to increase entrepreneurship at NUS and in Singapore more widely.
5. ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)
Switzerland’s leading university, ETH Zurich is now ranked within the top 10 universities in the world overall, climbing three places this year to reach 9th. The university was founded in 1854 by the Swiss Federal Government, with its goals being to educate engineers and scientists, serve as a national center of excellence in science and technology, and provide a hub for interaction between the scientific community and industry.
6. Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
The second Singaporean university among our list of top engineering schools, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has grown from the merger of two universities in 1991 to become a fully intensive comprehensive and research-focused institution. The College of Engineering is NTU's largest faculty, and is claimed to be the world’s largest engineering college, with a student population of more than 10,000 undergraduates and 3,500 graduates in its six schools focused on technology and innovation.
7. Imperial College London
Another university well known for its technological innovation and research is Imperial College London, the highest ranking university in London in the field of engineering and technology. Imperial College London’s research strategy includes a range of networking events and workshops, with the aim of applying its engineering research to pressing public issues such as climate change.
8. University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
Ranked 26th in the overall world rankings this year, the University of California, Berkeley’s highly respected engineering faculty claims many groundbreaking researchers among its alumni. For instance, it was host to the engineers who initiated the microelectronics that created Silicon Valley, and those who helped build iconic structures such as Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge. Today, UCB engineers in every field continue to develop technological innovations worldwide.
9. University of Oxford
It may be the oldest university in the English-speaking world, but the University of Oxford is far from backwards-looking. It has invested heavily in new facilities in recent years, aiming to maintain its strong reputation as a world leader in research. The university’s ‘Knowledge Exchange’ community is focused on the shared purpose of advancing the impact of research on the world. Oxford ranks 6thin the overall world rankings this year.
10. Harvard University
Ranked an impressive 2nd in the world overall this year, Harvard University is currently in the process of expanding its campus to Allston, with the aim of increasing the scope and strength of its science and technology programs as well as its School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). Faculty members at SEAS have won numerous awards, including the MacArthur Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Nobel Prize, and more.
