In 2009, Times Higher Education and QS Quacquarelli Symonds published the last THE – QS World University Ranking together. They have since continued to each publish their own university and academic subject rankings, alongside US News and ARWU (Shanghai).

These annual league tables of the the leading academic institutions around the world are consulted by tens of millions of students, supportive parents, alumni, faculty and administrators. Whether for universities or for academic subjects, the four different rankings use distinct methodologies to decide who ranks #1, and who ranks #100.

Fifteen years ago, THE – QS ranked the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at the top for the Engineering / Technology. In 2024, QS still ranks MIT #1 for engineering, while Times Higher Education (HE) has Harvard University in first place. Meanwhile, US News claims that China’s Tsinghua University is the best global university for engineering.

ARWU Shanghai breaks engineering into myriad specialisations – mechanical, electrical, chemical and civil engineering to name but a few – but has not published results in the past year.

So which is the best engineering school in the world?

BlueSky Thinking compiles the performance of schools across the major global subject rankings published by THE, QS and US News. You can see the BlueSky Ranking of Computer Science Rankings here, as well as the BlueSky Ranking of University Rankings.

As each ranking measures different things, with the inherent limitations of each assessment, the combined performance across multiple rankings provides a wider lens. Doing particularly well in one ranking and less well in another is reflected in the overall average score.

When it comes to engineering schools, 19 different institutions make the top 10 in at least one of the three league tables of 2024. Among the top 50, 16 are US universities; 11 are from China and HK; 4 schools are in the UK; 9 institutions are located in continental Europe; 3 arefrom Canada; 2 from Singapore, Australia and South Korea, and just one from Japan.

Though the graduates of the prestigious IITs increasingly fill the C-Suites of Fortune 500 companies, there are no Indian institutions in the world’s top 50.

Only MIT made the top 5 in all three subject rankings for engineering, and consequently ranks #1 in the BlueSky Ranking of Rankings. Stanford University and National University of Singapore (NUS) made the top 10 with each publisher, which is reflected in their overall position at #2 and #3 respectively.

Contrasting fortunes and regional variation

NUS was one of three Asian universities that made the US News top 10 for engineering, but the only school from the region to make the top 10 according to THE. Conversely, Harvard may have come top in the THE ranking but was listed #37 by US News.

The University of Cambridge, that made the top 5 for both QS and THE languishes at #56 is US News. Similarly, the University of Oxford is ranked #4 by THE, #9 by QS and #63 by US News. And Cal Tech which made the top 10 with THE is only at #87 in US News.

But the biggest disparity falls on Princeton University, which placed #8 in THE and did not even make the top 100 in US News; likewise, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University came in at #6 for US News, but is out of luck with QS at #120.

Such huge variances are a reflection of the different methodologies, which have been detailed below.

We’ll be generating more subject-specific rankings in the coming months. And you can also check out our global and regional rankings of university rankings.

Global Top 100: BlueSky Thinking Ranking of University Rankings 2022/23 – Global

N.America Top 50: BlueSky Thinking Ranking of University Rankings 2022/23 – N.America

Asia & Oceania Top 30: BlueSky Thinking Ranking of University Rankings 2022/23 – Asia & Oceania

BlueSky Ranking of Engineering School Rankings 2024

Each of the major university rankings uses a different methodology and weights the use of different data to produce their league tables, so it is important to understand what is being measured. In simple terms:

THE – the performance indicators are grouped into five areas: Teaching (the learning environment); Research (volume, income and reputation); Citations (research influence); International Outlook (staff, students and research); and Industry Income (knowledge transfer).

Teaching (30%); Research (30%); Citations (30%); International Outlook (7.5%); Industry Income (2.5%).

QS– six indicators looking at four broad categories: research reputation, the learning and teaching environment, research impact, and internationalisation. 

Academic Reputation (40%); Employer Reputation (10%); Citations per Faculty (20%); Faculty Student Ratio (20%); International Student Ration (5%); International Faculty Ratio (5%)

US News – calculates the rankings using 13 indicators and weights that U.S. News chose to measure global research performance.

Global Research Reputation (12.5%); Regional Research Reputation (12.5%); Publications (10%); Books (2.5%); Conferences (2.5%), Normalized Citation Impact (10%); Total Citations (7.5%); Number Of Publications Among 10% Most Cited (12.5%); Percentage Of Total Publications Among 10% Most Cited (10%); International Collaboration – Relative To Country (5%); International Collaboration (5%); Number Of Highly Cited Papers Among Top 1% Most Cited In Respective Field (5%); Percentage Of Total Publications Among Top 1% Most Highly Cited Papers (5%) 

About the author

Matt Symonds is Chief Editor of BlueSky Thinking. He is the S of QS, co-founding QS Quacquarelli Symonds, publishers of the QS World University Rankings and numerous business school rankings.

In 2010 Matt was the media consultant for Times Higher Education to support the launch of their own THE World University Rankings, and has subsequently worked for THE and WSJ for business school rankings.

Matt writes about Higher Education and management for Forbes, BBC, Times of India and formerly The Economist and Bloomberg.