Insights into the top 10 universities in the world for engineering 2025
| Engineering rank 2025 | Engineering rank 2024 | University | Country/region |
| 1 | 1 | Harvard University | United States |
| 2 | 2 | Stanford University | United States |
| 3 | 3 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | United States |
| 4 | 4 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom |
| 5 | 6 | University of California, Berkeley | United States |
| 6 | 5 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom |
| 7 | 7 | California Institute of Technology | United States |
| 8 | 8 | Princeton University | United States |
| 9 | 9 | National University of Singapore | Singapore |
| 10 | 11 | ETH Zurich | Switzerland |
Explore the full table for the best universities for engineering degrees
Studying engineering is a smart choice for career-minded students, and universities all over the globe offer world-class degrees.
Most students enrol on a degree for a specific discipline within engineering. Common specialisations include civil engineering, electrical engineering and chemical engineering.
Times Higher Education’s 2025 subject ranking for engineering and technology features 1,488 universities across more than 97 countries.
Although the schools at the very top are in the United States and United Kingdom, universities in Singapore, China and Switzerland perform very well and appear high in the rankings.
China is the second most-represented country in the list of the best universities for engineering, ahead of the UK, Germany, Australia and Canada. Only the United States has a higher number of universities 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.
Top 10 universities for engineering degrees
1. 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.
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.
2. Stanford University
Stanford University’s School of Engineering has been at the cutting edge of new technology and innovation for the past century.
Research focuses on the “most daunting human challenges of the coming decades”. These include: bioengineering, network security, climate change, robotics, information technology, materials and matter, urban design, accessible healthcare, and computation and data analysis.
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The MIT School of Engineering is the largest of the five schools at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The school offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and encourages students at all levels to conduct research.
It has eight academic departments and two interdisciplinary institutes. Departments include aeronautics and astronautics, biological engineering, mechanical engineering, and nuclear science and engineering.
4. University of Oxford
The University of Oxford offers undergraduates a four-year degree in engineering science, where they can specialise from their third year in one of six branches of engineering: biomedical, chemical, civil, electrical, information or mechanical.
Just under half of all applicants to this course 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.
5. University of California, Berkeley
The College of Engineering, established in 1931, is one of 14 schools and colleges at the University of California, Berkeley.
Students can choose from a number of specialisms, including civil and environmental engineering, mechanical engineering and nuclear engineering.
Notable alumni of the college include Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple; Marc Tarpenning, the co-founder of Tesla; Andrew Ng, co-founder and executive chairman of Coursera; and Peter Norvig, director of research at Google.
6. University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge’s undergraduate engineering course is four years long.
The first two years provide a broad engineering education, and the third and fourth years allow students to select modules to specialise further. These include aerospace and aerothermal engineering; bioengineering; civil, structural and environmental engineering; electrical and electronic engineering; and energy, sustainability and the environment.
Six postgraduate programmes in engineering can be taken as taught or research-based courses.
7. California Institute of Technology
Three of California Institute of Technology’s six academic divisions 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 its ambition and innovation.
8. Princeton University
The Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science provides undergraduate and graduate programmes across six departments: chemical and biological engineering, civil and environmental engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical and aerospace engineering, and operations research and financial engineering.
Notable alumni include Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and SanDisk founder Eli Harari.
9. National University of Singapore
The National University of Singapore is Asia’s highest-ranked university for engineering.
The institution’s College of Design and Engineering was established in 2022 through the merger of two schools – the Faculty of Engineering and the School of Design and Environment.
The college offers programmes in a range of fields, including biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering and civil and environmental engineering.
10. ETH Zurich
ETH Zurich in Switzerland is one of the world‘s most prestigious science and technology universities.
The university offers engineering undergraduate programmes in civil, environmental, mechanical, and geospatial engineering, electrical engineering and information technology, materials science, chemical and bioengineering, and computational sciences and engineering. Postgraduate programmes include nuclear, quantum and process engineering.
The institution has produced more than 20 Nobel Prize laureates, including the father of modern physics and inventor of the general theory of relativity, Albert Einstein.
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