Best universities for engineering degrees 2019

Find the best colleges for engineering and technology using Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings data

November 29 2018
Electrical engineering

Studying engineering is a smart choice for career-minded students and there are technical universities all over the world offering world-class degrees.

Most students in Europe enrol on a degree for a specific discipline within engineering. Common specialisations include civil engineering, electrical engineering and chemical engineering.

The 2019 subject ranking for engineering and technology, from Times Higher Education, features 900 universities across more than 70 countries.

Best universities by degree subject

Best universities for arts and humanities
Best universities for business and economics
Best universities for clinical, pre-clinical and health
Best universities for computer science
Best universities for life sciences
Best universities for physical sciences
Best universities for social sciences
Best universities for law degrees
Best universities for education degrees

Although the schools at the very top are in the United States and the United Kingdom, universities in Singapore, China and Switzerland perform extremely well and appear high up the rankings.

China is the third most-represented country in the list of the best universities for engineering, ahead of the UK, Germany, Australia and Canada. Only Japan and the United States have a higher number of universities present in the ranking. 

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

Scroll down for a full list of degrees covered by the ranking and what you can do with these degrees. 

Best universities worldwide

Best universities in the world
Best universities in the United States
Best universities in the UK
Best universities in Canada
Best universities in Australia
Best universities in Europe
Best universities in Singapore
Best universities in China

Top 5 universities for engineering degrees

1. University of Oxford

University of Oxford students are admitted for a specific engineering degree, differing from US universities where students can pick from various strands of engineering to study. 

For undergraduates, this will be a four-year course in engineering science or more specifically biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, information engineering or mechanical engineering.

Just under half of all applicants for these courses get through to the interview round and 15 per cent secure a place on a course.

Many Oxford engineering graduates go on to careers as professional engineers, although some enter business, consultancy or further study.

2. Stanford University

Stanford University’s School of Engineering has been at the cutting edge of new technology and innovation for the past century.

There are nine departments in the school, and additional institutes, laboratories and research centres.

Research focuses on 10 of the “most daunting human challenges of the coming decades”. These are: systems design, bioengineering, network security, climate change, robotics, information technology, materials and matter, urban design, affordable accessible healthcare, and computation and data analysis.

Across the nine departments there are eight interdepartmental undergraduate programmes that students can major in.

What can you do with an engineering degree?

What can you do with an aerospace engineering degree?
What can you do with a chemical engineering degree?
What can you do with a civil engineering degree?
What can you do with an electrical engineering degree?
What can you do with a general engineering degree?
What can you do with a mechanical engineering degree?

3. Harvard University

The John A Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences is the newest school at Harvard University, having been established in 2007. Its roots are in the Lawrence Scientific School, which was founded in 1847 and became a school in its own right in 2007.

The school covers a number of teaching areas such as applied mathematics, applied physics, bioengineering, computer science, electrical engineering, environmental science and engineering, and materials science and mechanical engineering. 

Alumni from the school have been awarded a Nobel Prize, a MacArthur Award, a Turing Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship among others. 

4. California Institute of Technology

Three of the six academic divisions at the California Institute of Technology teach and research engineering and technology subjects: the biology and biological engineering division, the chemistry and chemical engineering division, and the engineering and applied science division.

Both teaching and research are fairly cross-disciplinary. Undergraduates declare a major at the end of their first year.

There are five distinct engineering majors and an interdisciplinary studies programme that allows students to customise a course of study.

Caltech is one of the smallest universities in the world but prides itself on ambition and innovation.

5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Since 1861, the School of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has produced a stream of products and new technologies to solve engineering problems.

In the past few years, the school has increased its focus on innovation, launching the MIT Innovation Initiative. Research associated with the initiative has led to 60 US patents licensed by multinational companies.

Another parallel initiative provides students with educational experiences, mentoring and funding to encourage their creativity and support their projects.

Laboratories and departments in the school produce a range of research, from insights on food security to soldier nanotechnology.

Student experience studying engineering 

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Women in STEM: looking forward to equality
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Life at the world's best Millennial university
Women in STEM: stories from MIT students

Best universities for engineering 2019

Click each institution to view its World University Ranking 2019 profile

Engineering Rank 2019 Engineering Rank 2018 University Country/Region
 1  3 University of Oxford United Kingdom
 2  1 Stanford University United States
 3  NR Harvard University United States
 4  2 California Institute of Technology United States
 5  4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States
 6  5 University of Cambridge United Kingdom
 7  6 Princeton University United States
 8  8 National University of Singapore Singapore
 9  9 ETH Zurich Switzerland
 10  11 Georgia Institute of Technology United States
 11  13 University of California, Berkeley United States
 12  10 Imperial College London United Kingdom
 13  NR University of California, Los Angeles United States
 14  7 Peking University China
 15  16 Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Singapore
 16  17 University of Michigan United States
 17  12 Carnegie Mellon University United States
 18  =14 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland
 19  =18 Delft University of Technology Netherlands
 20  22 Tsinghua University China
 21  NR Yale University United States
 22  28 University of Texas at Austin United States
 23  =18 Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong
 23  =14 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign United States
 25  =20 Cornell University United States
 26  =20 Technical University of Munich Germany
 27  24 RWTH Aachen University Germany
 28  25 Purdue University United States
 29  31 University of California, Santa Barbara United States
 30  NR University of Pennsylvania United States
 31  29 University of Toronto Canada
 32  23 Northwestern University United States
 33  27 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) South Korea
 34  26 Columbia University United States
 35  33 University of California, San Diego United States
 36  32 Seoul National University South Korea
 =37  50 Zhejiang University China
 =37  34 Johns Hopkins University United States
 =37  35 The University of Tokyo Japan
 40  30 University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
 41  36 UCL United Kingdom
 42  39 University of Science and Technology of China China
 43  41 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China
 44  40 University of Wisconsin-Madison United States
 45  37 KU Leuven Belgium
 46  42 Kyoto University Japan
 =47  NR Duke University United States
 =47  =63 University of Southern California United States
 49  =47 Fudan University China
 50  =47 Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) South Korea
 51  49 Rice University United States
 52  54 Pennsylvania State University United States
 53  38 KTH Royal Institute of Technology Sweden
 54  55 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Germany
 55  71 McGill University Canada
 56  46 University of Manchester United Kingdom
 =57  45 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom
 =57  44 University of Washington United States
 59  65 Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan
 60  43 Technical University of Berlin Germany
 =61  60 City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
 =61  56 Texas A&M University United States
 63  59 Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
 =63  57 Monash University Australia
 =63  =52 Ohio State University United States
 65  62 University of British Columbia Canada
 66  58 Technical University of Denmark Denmark
 68  =52 Pohang University of Science and Technology South Korea
 69  51 Eindhoven University of Technology Netherlands
 70  67 Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong
 70  =63 University of Melbourne Australia
 71  69 University of New South Wales Australia
 =72  =99 Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris France
 =72  78 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University United States
 74  61 Tohoku University Japan
 75  87 University of Southampton United Kingdom
 =76  66 Australian National University Australia
 =76  70 University of California, Davis United States
 79  NR New York University United States
 80  68 Brown University United States
 81  72 University of Maryland, College Park United States
 =82  80 Nanjing University China
 =82  79 Chalmers University of Technology Sweden
 84  82 École Polytechnique France
 85  73 University of Queensland Australia
 86  75 University of Bristol United Kingdom
 87  =96 University of Wollongong Australia
 88  74 University of Minnesota Twin Cities United States
 89  101–125 University of California, Irvine United States
 =90  85 Aalborg University Denmark
 =90  =93 TU Dresden Germany
 92  81 National Taiwan University Taiwan
 93  76 University of Sydney Australia
 94  77 University of Stuttgart Germany
 =95  91 University of Colorado Boulder United States
 =95  =89 Indian Institute of Science India
 97  95 University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Germany
 98  92 Tongji University China
 99  176–200 Huazhong University of Science and Technology China
 100  101–125 Korea University South Korea
 101–125  =99 Aalto University Finland
 101–125  101–125 University of Adelaide Australia
 101–125  101–125 Arizona State University United States
 101–125  101–125 University of California, Riverside United States
 101–125  =99 University of Delaware United States
 101–125  88 University of Freiburg Germany
 101–125  151–175 Harbin Institute of Technology China
 101–125  =96 Lund University Sweden
 101–125  151–175 University of Macau Macao
 101–125  101–125 University of Massachusetts United States
 101–125  101–125 Michigan State University United States
 101–125  101–125 National Tsing Hua University Taiwan
 101–125  NR University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States
 101–125  =93 North Carolina State University United States
 101–125  101–125 University of Notre Dame United States
 101–125  101–125 University of Nottingham United Kingdom
 101–125  =89 Polytechnic University of Milan Italy
 101–125  126–150 Queen Mary University of London United Kingdom
 101–125  101–125 Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna Italy
 101–125  84 University of Sheffield United Kingdom
 101–125  101–125 Technical University of Darmstadt Germany
 101–125  101–125 University of Technology Sydney Australia
 101–125  101–125 Wageningen University & Research Netherlands
 101–125  83 University of Waterloo Canada
 101–125  101–125 Wuhan University China
 101–125  126–150 Xi’an Jiaotong University China
 126–150  101–125 University of Alberta Canada
 126–150  126–150 University of Bath United Kingdom
 126–150  126–150 University of Birmingham United Kingdom
 126–150  126–150 Case Western Reserve University United States
 126–150  126–150 Colorado School of Mines United States
 126–150  101–125 University of Florida United States
 126–150  151–175 Hanyang University South Korea
 126–150  =99 University of Leeds United Kingdom
 126–150  126–150 Linköping University Sweden
 126–150  126–150 University of Luxembourg Luxembourg
 126–150  101–125 Nagoya University Japan
 126–150  86 Norwegian University of Science and Technology Norway
 126–150  126–150 Ruhr University Bochum Germany
 126–150  151–175 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey United States
 126–150  151–175 University of South Australia Australia
 126–150  126–150 University of Surrey United Kingdom
 126–150  151–175 University of Tennessee, Knoxville United States
 126–150  101–125 University of Twente Netherlands
 126–150  101–125 Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology South Korea
 126–150  NR Vanderbilt University United States
 126–150  151–175 Victoria University Australia
 126–150  126–150 University of Warwick United Kingdom
 126–150  126–150 University of Western Australia Australia
 126–150  126–150 Yonsei University (Seoul campus) South Korea
 151–175  126–150 University of Bologna Italy
 151–175  126–150 Boston University United States
 151–175  176–200 University at Buffalo United States
 151–175  126–150 University of California, Santa Cruz United States
 151–175  NR Dartmouth College United States
 151–175  NR Deakin University Australia
 151–175  101–125 Ghent University Belgium
 151–175  126–150 Griffith University Australia
 151–175  126–150 Indian Institute of Technology Bombay India
 151–175  NR Jacobs University Germany
 151–175  151–175 King Abdulaziz University Saudi Arabia
 151–175  126–150 Lomonosov Moscow State University Russian Federation
 151–175  176–200 University of Malaya Malaysia
 151–175  151–175 Newcastle University United Kingdom
 151–175  98 Osaka University Japan
 151–175  101–125 Polytechnic University of Turin Italy
 151–175  NR Pompeu Fabra University Spain
 151–175  126–150 Soochow University China
 151–175  NR Sorbonne University France
 151–175  126–150 Southeast University China
 151–175  151–175 University of Texas at Dallas United States
 151–175  101–125 Trinity College Dublin Republic of Ireland
 151–175  151–175 University College Dublin Republic of Ireland
 151–175  126–150 Uppsala University Sweden
 151–175  126–150 Vienna University of Technology Austria
 176–200  151–175 Aarhus University Denmark
 176–200  201–250 University of Arizona United States
 176–200  201–250 University of Bayreuth Germany
 176–200  151–175 Brunel University London United Kingdom
 176–200  176–200 Cardiff University United Kingdom
 176–200  NR Centrale Nantes France
 176–200  176–200 Drexel University United States
 176–200  176–200 University of Duisburg-Essen Germany
 176–200  176–200 University of Exeter United Kingdom
 176–200  176–200 University of Iceland Iceland
 176–200  201–250 Khalifa University United Arab Emirates
 176–200  101–125 Kyushu University Japan
 176–200  176–200 University of Liverpool United Kingdom
 176–200  NR University of Miami United States
 176–200  NR Nankai University China
 176–200  176–200 National Chiao Tung University Taiwan
 176–200  201–250 University of Padua Italy
 176–200  201–250 Paris-Sud University France
 176–200  NR University of Pittsburgh United States
 176–200  176–200 Qatar University Qatar
 176–200  176–200 Queen’s University Belfast United Kingdom
 176–200  176–200 RMIT University Australia
 176–200  251–300 University of Rome III Italy
 176–200  151–175 Sapienza University of Rome Italy
 176–200  151–175 Tianjin University China
 176–200  151–175 Ulm University Germany

Click here to view the top 900 universities for engineering degrees

Read more: The most detailed subject guide you will ever see to help you pick your degree

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