The Times Higher Education World University Rankings' Engineering and Technology table judges world class universities across all of their core missions - teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. The ranking of the world's top 50 universities for engineering and technology employs 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons available, which are trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments.

Top 50 engineering & technology universities

Rank Institution Location Overall score
1 California Institute of Technology United States
95.9
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States
94.7
3 Stanford University United States
93.0
4 Princeton University United States
91.3
5 University of California, Berkeley United States
90.5
6 University of Cambridge United Kingdom
87.8
7 ETH Zürich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich Switzerland
87.2
8 University of Oxford United Kingdom
85.9
9 Imperial College London United Kingdom
85.8
10 Georgia Institute of Technology United States
83.2
11 Carnegie Mellon University United States
82.3
12 Cornell University United States
80.9
13 University of Toronto Canada
80.1
14 University of Michigan United States
79.5
15 University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign United States
77.8
16 National University of Singapore Singapore
77.5
17 University of California, Santa Barbara United States
75.4
18 Northwestern University United States
75.0
19 The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
72.3
20 Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong
71.3
20 Tsinghua University China
71.3
22 École Polytechnique France
70.4
22 University of Tokyo Japan
70.4
24 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland
69.4
25 Peking University China
69.1
26 University of Massachusetts United States
67.5
27 University of Minnesota United States
67.0
28 Pohang University of Science and Technology Republic of Korea
66.4
29 Brown University United States
64.7
30 University of Melbourne Australia
64.4
31 University of California, San Diego United States
63.6
32 Rice University United States
63.5
33 Delft University of Technology Netherlands
63.2
34 Purdue University United States
62.8
34 École Normale Supérieure France
62.8
37 University of Queensland Australia Australia
62.3
38 Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg Germany
62.1
38 University of British Columbia Canada
62.1
40 University of Sydney Australia
61.6
41 University of Southern California United States
60.9
42 University of California, Davis United States
60.7
43 Birkbeck, University of London United Kingdom
60.6
44 Australian National University Australia
60.4
45 University of Science and Technology of China China
60.2
46 National Taiwan University Taiwan
60.1
47 University of Notre Dame United States
59.9
48 Nanjing University China
59.7
49 Universität Bielefeld Germany
58.0
50 Ohio State University United States
57.4

Golden state surfs crest of high-tech wave

23 September 2010

The engineering and technology table is dominated not just by a single country, the US, but by a single state in that country — California.

Three of the top five in the table are from the Golden State, home to the global centre for high-technology business, Silicon Valley. The California Institute of Technology is in first place; Stanford University is third; and the University of California, Berkeley is fifth.

In total, seven Californian institutions make the top 50.

America's East Coast also features strongly, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in second place and Princeton University in fourth.

But the table also highlights the growing global challenge to US dominance in this area. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, breaks into the top 10 in seventh.

Engineering and technology also features more Asian institutions than any other of our subject rankings, reflecting the region's high levels of investment. The top Asian institution in the table is the National University of Singapore in 16th position.

nts former US poet laureate Robert Pinsky and authors Ken Kesey and Jeffrey Eugenides among its alumni, has retained its position at the top of the arts and humanities subject table this year, just as the US and the UK have strengthened their grip on the discipline.

The US has three more universities in the top 50 this year than in 2011- 12, taking its total to 25.

Columbia University is a notable entrant, displacing Harvard University from the number two spot. The University of Pennsylvania enters the top 10 and Duke University makes its debut, with this year's line-up shaped by extra data from more institutions.

Ten UK institutions make the list, one more than last year, with Durham University and the University of Warwick entering the top 50.

The University of Oxford, the UK's top-ranked arts and humanities institution, edges up one place to sixth.

Only two universities from Asia feature (matching the region's performance in 2011-12) - the University of Hong Kong and the National University of Singapore.

The former boasts the Center for the Study of Globalization and Cultures, which analyses global flows of culture, identity, media and technology with the help of an advisory board drawn from universities across the world. It climbs seven places to 29, while the National University of Singapore drops by five to 43.

The improved showing for US and UK universities comes at the expense of continental Europe, which now has seven institutions ranked in the top 50, three fewer than last year.

Down Under, New Zealand has lost its sole representative, the University of Auckland.

Meanwhile, Canberra-based Australian National University - last year the only institution not from the US or the UK to achieve a top-five position in a subject table - has fallen to 13th place.

However, Australia has maintained three universities in the top 50.