Top Civil Engineering Schools in 2014

Click here to view the latest version of this article based on the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2018.

If you’re looking to study at one of the world’s top civil engineering schools, you’ll probably be interested in the results of the civil and structural engineering ranking, published as one of 30 subject areas covered in the 2014 QS World University Rankings by Subject. The ranking is compiled based on the results of QS’s huge global surveys of academics and employers, combined with data on research citations – with the aim of identifying the universities with the strongest international reputation and research impact in each academic field.

The interactive ranking table can be sorted by each performance indicator, and also by location (available to logged-in users only). But for a quick overview of this year’s top civil engineering schools around the world, read on.

Top civil engineering schools in the US and Canada

The US claims 39 of the world’s top 200 civil engineering schools, including four within the global top 10 and eight more in the top 50. The highest performer is Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), currently ranked the world’s number one across all engineering disciplines – and also the overall leader in the 2013/14 QS World University Rankings®.

Other top civil engineering schools in the US include the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (ranked second in the world for civil engineering), University of California, Berkeley (third), University of Texas at Austin (sixth), Stanford University (11^th), Purdue University (23^rd), Georgia Institute of Technology (24=), Texas A&M University (26^th) and the University of California, San Diego (27^th).

Canada has 12 universities ranked among the 200 top civil engineering schools, led by the University of Toronto (33^rd) and University of British Columbia (50=). Also within the upper half of the ranking are the University of Alberta, University of Calgary and University of Waterloo.

Top civil engineering schools in Europe

After the US, the next largest share of top civil engineering schools is claimed by the UK, which has 23 entries among the global top 200, including two within the top 10: the University of Cambridge (4=) and Imperial College London (9^th). The University of Oxford also makes the top 50, while Loughborough University, the University of Manchester, University of Sheffield, UCL (University College London) and University of Bristol are all within the top 100.

Elsewhere in Europe, Germany claims nine entries among the world’s 200 best for civil engineering, while Italy has seven. Belgium, Greece, Spain and Sweden each have three top-200 entries, while two apiece are claimed by Austria, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey.

The highest ranked civil engineering schools in continental Europe are Switzerland’s ETH Zurich and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (13^th and 24=), the Netherlands’ Delft University of Technology (14^th), Italy’s Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino (17^th and 41^st), Greece’s National Technical University of Athens (28^th), Spain’s Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (36^th), Germany’s Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (40^th), Sweden’s KTH, Royal Institute of Technology (46^th) and Denmark’s Technical University of Denmark (48^th).

Top civil engineering schools in Australia and New Zealand

Next after the US and UK in terms of might in numbers is Australia, which has 15 universities ranked among the world’s 200 top civil engineering schools. Seven of these make the global top 50: the University of Sydney (15=), University of New South Wales (18^th), Monash University (30^th), University of Queensland (42=), University of Melbourne (44^th), University of Newcastle (45^th) and Queensland University of Technology (47^th).

Neighboring New Zealand claims two entries in the civil engineering ranking, with the University of Canterbury within the global top 20 in this subject.

Top civil engineering schools in Asia

With 13 universities ranked among the world’s top 200 for civil engineering, China boasts the fourth largest presence in the ranking. Its leading civil engineering schools are Tsinghua University (20^th) and Tongji University (21=), while Harbin Institute of Technology, Peking University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University also make the top 100.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan has eight entries in the top 100, India and South Korea seven each, Malaysia five, Hong Kong and Taiwan four each, and Singapore and Thailand each have two.

Joining Tsinghua and Tongji among the world’s top 50 are the University of Tokyo (4=), National University of Singapore (7^th), Kyoto University (8^th), University of Hong Kong (10^th), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (12^th), Hong Kong Polytechnic University (15=), Nanyang Technological University (21=), Tokyo Institute of Technology (29^th), City University of Hong Kong (31^st), KAIST - Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (32^nd), National Taiwan University (35^th), Seoul National University (38^th), Indian Institute of Technology Madras (49^th) and Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (50=).

More top civil engineering schools

A total of 39 countries have at least one university ranked within the world’s top 200 for civil and structural engineering. Those not already named above include Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, France, Israel, Hungary, Lebanon, Mexico, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Africa.