These are the world’s top universities for engineering

Two Australian universities have made the top 50 for engineering and technology in the 2021 QS World University Rankings by Subject.

The University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney was the highest ranked Australian institution on the list, in 36th place. It was also named fifth in the world for Mineral and Mining Engineering and 12th for Civil and Structural Engineering.

UNSW President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Jacobs said the university’s mission was to “help solve major societal challenges”. 

“From engineering to law and to environmental sciences — encompassing many other disciplines — we are contributing to the social and economic future of Australia,” he said.

Joining UNSW in the top 50 for engineering and technology was the University of Melbourne (50).

Other Australian universities in the top 100 included Monash University (58), the University of Sydney (65), the Australian National University (79) and the University of Queensland (85).

Covering 51 subject areas and five broad faculty areas, the rankings are developed based on four sources: academic reputation, employer reputation, research citations per paper and ‘h-index’, which measures the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist or scholar.

Globally, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), came in at number one, followed by Stanford University, the University of Cambridge, ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

QS spokesperson Jack Moran said there were three factors shared by the best-performing universities: an international outlook, strong investment from government and relationships with industry, which can lead to better employment, research and innovation outcomes.

Despite missing out on a top spot in the engineering and technology category, Western Australia’s Curtin University was named the world’s second-ranked university for Mineral and Mining Engineering for the fifth year in a row.

Best of the best

Australian universities were also well-represented in the overall QS World University Rankings this year, with 11 making it into the top 200. This is up from nine local institutions making the list in 2020.

These were:

• Australian National University: 31
• University of Sydney: 40
• University of Melbourne: 41
• UNSW Sydney: 44
• University of Queensland: 46
• Monash University: 55
• University of Western Australia: 92
• University of Adelaide: 106
• University of Technology Sydney: 133
• University of Wollongong: 196
• University of Newcastle: 197

Meanwhile, MIT continued its record-breaking streak, maintaining its first place for the ninth year in a row. Stanford University, Harvard University, the California Institute of Technology and the University of Oxford rounded out the top five. 

There were more than 5500 universities considered for inclusion in this year’s World University Rankings, with the winners coming from 85 locations.