Most students enroll on a degree for a specific discipline within engineering. Common specializations include civil engineering, electrical engineering and chemical engineering.
Subject ranking for engineering and technology features 1,374 universities across more than 70 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.
Top 5 universities for engineering degrees
5. 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 specialize further. These include aerospace and aerothermal engineering; bioengineering; civil, structural and environmental engineering; electrical and electronic engineering; and energy, sustainability and the environment.
There are six postgraduate programmers in engineering that can be taken as a taught course or as research study.
4. University of Oxford
The University of Oxford offers undergraduates a four-year degree in engineering science, where they can specialize 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.
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The MIT School of Engineering is the largest of the five schools at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The school offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and encourages students at all levels to conduct research.
The school has eight academic departments and two interdisciplinary institutes. Departments include aeronautics and astronautics, biological engineering, mechanical engineering, nuclear science and 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.
It has nine departments, as well as a number of institutes, laboratories and research centers.
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.
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.