Best universities for computer science degrees 2020

Find the best universities for computer science using Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings data

October 16 2019

Studying computer science is a smart bet in today’s world, as the career opportunities for tech-savvy graduates are expanding every year.

There’s also an extensive choice of universities when it comes to deciding where to study computer science.

Some 749 schools feature in the ranking for computer science by Times Higher Education this year.

Universities by degree subject

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Nearly a sixth of the featured universities are American colleges, and almost a third are based in Europe. Approximately 230 of the universities are to be found in Asia.

Computer science degrees vary in their focus and specialisms. Some courses are very theoretical, while others are more focused on programming.

The ranking uses the same methodology as the World University Rankings, but with slightly higher weighting given to the innovation metric and lower weighting for citations. The full methodology can be found here.

Scroll down to find out what you can do with a computer science degree.

Best universities worldwide

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Top 5 universities for computer science

1. University of Oxford

Although computer science is a relatively modern discipline, the University of Oxford has one of the oldest departments in the country, formerly known as the Oxford University Computing Laboratory.

Since its beginnings, the department has provided lectures for undergraduates and trained research students at postgraduate level.

In addition to core computer science topics, students can take courses in computational biology, quantum computing, information systems, software verification, software engineering and computational linguistics.

The department offers three undergraduate degrees: single honours computer science, maths and computer science, and computer science and philosophy.

Like students of other subjects, computer science students – whether undergraduate or postgraduate – belong to one of Oxford’s colleges, where they have the option to eat, socialise, study and live.

2. Stanford University

The Stanford University computer science department was established in 1965. The department offers bachelor’s of science, master’s of science and a doctor of philosophy.

The department undertakes research in many areas, including artificial intelligence, robotics, foundations of computer science, scientific computing and programming systems. There is also a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary research across chemistry, genetics, linguistics, construction and medicine, among others.

The home of the computer science department is the Gates Computer Science Building, named after Bill Gates, who donated $6 million to the project.

3. ETH Zurich

ETH Zurich has a history of developing software and designing computer systems. Eventually, these projects called for a dedicated computer science department, which was created in 1981.

The department covers many areas of computer science, including computational intelligence, networks and distributed systems, algorithms and theory, and information security. Different programming languages are also taught on software engineering courses.

There are close relationships with other departments within the university and with partners in business and industry, such as IBM, Microsoft, Google, SAP and Disney, with which the university collaborates on research projects.

ETH Zurich dates back to 1855, just a few years after the formation of the federal state of Switzerland. Created as a centre for scientific knowledge and innovation, it remains a top institution for a range of subjects.

What can you do with a computer science degree?

4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The department of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology confidently declares: “Our students change the world.”

Many of its alumni feature on lists of influential entrepreneurs who are making changes at home and abroad.

Students are encouraged to develop start-ups, and research projects have explored problems such as calculating the financial risks of renewable energy and developing faster parallel computing.

Undergraduates are enrolled on a flexible curriculum that allows them to focus on both abstract theory and practical problems in computer science. Students can major in computer science or in both computer science and molecular biology.

Graduates go on to design video games, work on supercomputers, research robotics and often join big companies such as Google and Microsoft.

5. University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge computer science department offers undergraduate students the Computer Science Tripos course, a three- or four-year computer science course.

The university also offers an MPhil in computer science as a general master’s degree, which helps to prepare students for a PhD in computer science.

There are many research groups based in the computer science department, exploring topics such as artificial intelligence, security, graphics and interaction, and computer architecture.

Student experience of studying computer science

Women in STEM: stories from MIT students
Studying at POSTECH, South Korea
Caltech: ‘uniquely difficult but a wonderful place to study’
Keeping up with coding
Women in STEM: ‘I hope that one day the tech sector will be more diverse’

Best universities for computer science 2020

Click each institution to view its World University Ranking 2020 profile

Computer Science Rank 2020	Computer Science Rank 2019	University	Country/region
1	1	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
2	3	Stanford University	United States
3	2	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
4	5	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
5	4	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
6	6	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
7	11	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
8	9	Harvard University	United States
9	8	Princeton University	United States
10	10	California Institute of Technology	United States
11	15	National University of Singapore	Singapore
12	12	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
13	29	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
14	14	Cornell University	United States
15	=20	Tsinghua University	China
16	7	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
17	28	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
18	26	Technical University of Munich	Germany
19	23	UCL	United Kingdom
20	13	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland
21	=20	Columbia University	United States
22	27	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
23	=18	University of Toronto	Canada
24	17	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
25	=18	University of Texas at Austin	United States
26	22	University of Washington	United States
27	32	Peking University	China
28	16	Yale University	United States
29	25	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
30	31	Johns Hopkins University	United States
=31	34	University of Montreal	Canada
=31	33	University of Pennsylvania	United States
33	24	New York University	United States
34	38	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France
35	30	University of California, San Diego	United States
36	37	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
37	36	University of Southern California	United States
38	46	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
39	43	University of Chicago	United States
40	41	University of Waterloo	Canada
41	45	Zhejiang University	China
42	40	The University of Tokyo	Japan
43	35	University of British Columbia	Canada
44	53	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)	South Korea
45	49	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
46	47	RWTH Aachen University	Germany
=47	56	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
=47	50	Seoul National University	South Korea
49	44	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
=50	42	Karlsruhe Institute of Technology	Germany
=50	39	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
52	66	KU Leuven	Belgium
53	72	Duke University	United States
54	51	University of California, Santa Barbara	United States
55	70	Technical University of Berlin	Germany
=56	=88	Aalto University	Finland
=56	52	University of Melbourne	Australia
58	48	LMU Munich	Germany
59	=74	Eindhoven University of Technology	Netherlands
60	=57	Rice University	United States
61	=57	University of Science and Technology of China	China
62	55	University of California, Irvine	United States
63	61	École Polytechnique	France
64	64	Technion Israel Institute of Technology	Israel
65	69	University of Freiburg	Germany
66	79	McGill University	Canada
67	60	National Taiwan University	Taiwan
68	67	Technical University of Darmstadt	Germany
=69	84	Australian National University	Australia
=69	54	KTH Royal Institute of Technology	Sweden
71	NR	Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)	South Korea
=72	68	Nanjing University	China
=72	101–125	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
=74	59	Brown University	United States
=74	71	ITMO University	Russian Federation
76	=76	Vienna University of Technology	Austria
77	65	University of Massachusetts	United States
78	73	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
=79	=76	King’s College London	United Kingdom
=79	=74	University of Technology Sydney	Australia
=79	126–150	UNSW Sydney	Australia
82	62	Kyoto University	Japan
=83	NR	Northwestern University	United States
=83	=88	University of Zurich	Switzerland
85	63	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
=86	101–125	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
=86	101–125	University of Sydney	Australia
88	=81	Sorbonne University	France
89	126–150	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	United States
90	90	University of Luxembourg	Luxembourg
91	=91	Boston University	United States
=92	101–125	Chalmers University of Technology	Sweden
=92	101–125	Heidelberg University	Germany
=92	97	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
95	101–125	Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology	Russian Federation
96	101–125	University of Adelaide	Australia
97	=93	Polytechnic University of Milan	Italy
98	74	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
99	83	Michigan State University	United States
100	NR	Aarhus University	Denmark
101–125	98	University of Alberta	Canada
101–125	101–125	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
101–125	126–150	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
101–125	86	University of Bologna	Italy
101–125	NR	University of Bonn	Germany
101–125	101–125	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
101–125	=93	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
101–125	101–125	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg	Germany
101–125	101–125	Fudan University	China
101–125	78	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russian Federation
101–125	126–150	McMaster University	Canada
101–125	96	University of Minnesota	United States
101–125	99	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
101–125	101–125	Northeastern University	United States
101–125	126–150	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
101–125	100	Queen Mary University of London	United Kingdom
101–125	95	University of Queensland	Australia
101–125	101–125	Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey	United States
101–125	126–150	Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies – Pisa	Italy
101–125	101–125	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	University of South Australia	Australia
101–125	126–150	University of Surrey	United Kingdom
101–125	=81	Tel Aviv University	Israel
101–125	=91	University of Trento	Italy
101–125	151–175	TU Dresden	Germany
126–150	101–125	University of California, Riverside	United States
126–150	101–125	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
126–150	126–150	Dartmouth College	United States
126–150	126–150	École Normale Supérieure de Lyon	France
126–150	126–150	Free University of Bozen-Bolzano	Italy
126–150	126–150	University of Geneva	Switzerland
126–150	151–175	Griffith University	Australia
126–150	126–150	University of Groningen	Netherlands
126–150	126–150	Harbin Institute of Technology	China
126–150	101–125	Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Israel
126–150	176–200	Indian Institute of Science	India
126–150	126–150	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia
126–150	151–175	Korea University	South Korea
126–150	101–125	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
126–150	NR	Macau University of Science and Technology	Macao
126–150	101–125	University of Malaya	Malaysia
126–150	126–150	University of Mannheim	Germany
126–150	101–125	National Tsing Hua University	Taiwan
126–150	151–175	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Sapienza University of Rome	Italy
126–150	201–250	Sejong University	South Korea
126–150	151–175	University of Stuttgart	Germany
126–150	87	Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)	South Korea
126–150	126–150	Technical University of Denmark	Denmark
126–150	NR	Télécom Paris	France
126–150	126–150	University of Tübingen	Germany
151–175	151–175	Aalborg University	Denmark
151–175	NR	University of Basel	Switzerland
151–175	101–125	University of California, Santa Cruz	United States
151–175	301–400	Central South University	China
151–175	176–200	University of Florida	United States
151–175	176–200	University of Göttingen	Germany
151–175	176–200	Graz University of Technology	Austria
151–175	126–150	University of Helsinki	Finland
151–175	176–200	Hong Kong Baptist University	Hong Kong
151–175	176–200	Indian Institute of Technology Bombay	India
151–175	201–250	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	India
151–175	126–150	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
151–175	176–200	University of Macau	Macao
151–175	201–250	National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Taiwan Tech)	Taiwan
151–175	151–175	North Carolina State University	United States
151–175	151–175	University of Passau	Germany
151–175	301–400	Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University	Russian Federation
151–175	126–150	Queen’s University Belfast	United Kingdom
151–175	101–125	Stony Brook University	United States
151–175	151–175	Texas A&M University	United States
151–175	201–250	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
151–175	85	University of Twente	Netherlands
151–175	NR	Università della Svizzera Italiana	Switzerland
151–175	101–125	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
151–175	NR	William & Mary	United States
176–200	251–300	University of Antwerp	Belgium
176–200	101–125	University at Buffalo	United States
176–200	126–150	Durham University	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	University of Essex	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	Free University of Berlin	Germany
176–200	201–250	Huazhong University of Science and Technology	China
176–200	NR	University of Idaho	United States
176–200	301–400	IMT Atlantique	France
176–200	176–200	University of Leicester	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	Linköping University	Sweden
176–200	NR	Lund University	Sweden
176–200	151–175	National Chiao Tung University	Taiwan
176–200	201–250	University of Ottawa	Canada
176–200	201–250	University of Oulu	Finland
176–200	151–175	Paris-Sud University	France
176–200	126–150	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	United States
176–200	151–175	University of Potsdam	Germany
176–200	151–175	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
176–200	151–175	Ruhr University Bochum	Germany
176–200	176–200	Temple University	United States
176–200	151–175	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
176–200	151–175	Washington University in St Louis	United States
176–200	176–200	West Virginia University	United States
176–200	176–200	Xi’an Jiaotong University	China