Top universities for computer science

The recently released QS World University Rankings by Subject feature 686 of the top universities to study computer science and information systems. 

The rankings are based on five different indicators: academic and employer reputation, citations per paper, H-index (which is used to measure the productivity and impact of a university) and international research network. You can find more information about the methodology and how the rankings are put together here. 

Read on as we discover the top computer science universities in each region around the world. 

Top universities for computer science in the US & Canada

In this year’s subject rankings for computer science, 109 of the schools featured are in the United States with five of these in the top ten for computer science worldwide, the most of any other country. Outside of the top ten, there are plenty of top computer science universities available, including Princeton University (13th), University of Washington (14th), Cornell University (17th) and University of California Los Angeles (18th). 

Canada is home to 25 excellent computer science universities, including University of Toronto in 12th place which scores particularly well in the citations per paper indicator. Other notable computer science universities in Canada are the University of British Columbia which remains 21st on the list and University of Waterloo which this year climbs three places to 22nd. 

Top universities for computer science in Europe

The UK contains an impressive 58 of the top universities featured in this year’s computer science ranking – two of which can be found in the worldwide top ten. Outside of the top ten but still in the worldwide top 25 are Imperial College London (15th), The University of Edinburgh (20th) and University College London (24th). Ireland is home to seven universities in the subject ranking including Trinity College Dublin in the top 100. 

In Denmark, there are five top computer science universities, including University of Copenhagen (101st) and Aarhus University (140th) in the top 150. Similarly, Finland is home to five top universities in the subject rankings with its highest-ranked university Aalto University ranking 84th. Sweden has nine universities in the rankings including KTH Royal Institute of Technology ranking 62nd overall. 

The Netherlands performs well in the subject rankings for computer science with no less than 12 universities featured, three of these in the top 100; University of Amsterdam (34th), Delft University of Technology (54th) and Eindhoven University of Technology (69th).  

Romania contains four of the top universities including the countries joint highest-ranked entries Babes-Bolyai University and University POLYTEHNICA of Bucharest, both ranked 401-450. 

France, Germany, and Italy all perform extremely well in the rankings, France containing 30 top computer science schools, including Institut Polytechnique de Paris which remains as France’s highest-ranked school, having ranked 31st for the second year running. Germany contains 28 of the best universities in the world for computer science with its top university Ludwig-Maximillian-Universität München ranked 91st worldwide. Italy is home to 21 ranked universities with Politecnico di Milano coming out on top for computer science, ranked 33rd. 

Spain has 12 universities in the rankings, including its highest-ranked university Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (82nd). 

Belgium has seven entries this year with two of these, KU Leuven and Université Catholique de Louvain, in the top 150. Portugal’s three entrants include top-250-ranked University of Lisbon. Of Switzerland’s seven entries, two – ETH Zurich and EPFL – can be found in the top 10 worldwide. 

Top universities for computer science in Australia & New Zealand

Australia is home to an incredible 22 universities featured in the computer science rankings, with six of these appearing in the worldwide top 100: The University of Melbourne (41st), Australian National University (56th), The University of New South Wales (=57th), The University of Sydney (=57th), Monash University (=73rd) and University of Technology Sydney (=73rd). 

New Zealand’s seven universities include University of Auckland within the top 150, ranked 112th. 

Top universities for computer science in Asia

Mainland China has one of the largest presences of any Asian country in the ranking with 39 universities, four of these in the top 50 worldwide: Tsinghua University (15th), Peking University (19th), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (27th) and Zhejiang University (36th). 

Over in South Korea we have 18 top computer science universities, including Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (29th), Seoul National University (32nd) and Korea University (73rd). Six of the top universities for computer science are found in Hong Kong SAR, such as The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (40th), The Chinese University of Hong Kong (53rd) and The University of Hong Kong (61st). 

Japan has 15 entrants in the rankings this year, including The University of Tokyo which ranked 49th, despite dropping four places this year. Singapore has four top universities in the rankings, with National University of Singapore (6th) and Nanyang Technological University (11th) placed within the top 20. Indonesia has five entries this year. 

India performs well this year, with 27 universities featured in the rankings. Of these, four are in the worldwide top 100: Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (66th), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (67th), Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (94th) and Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (96th). 

Taiwan contains 12 of the top universities in the world for computer science including.

Top universities for computer science in the Middle East

The Middle East has 60 universities in our global rankings for computer science. 

The United Arab Emirates contains seven of this year’s top universities for computer science with Khalifa University coming out on top, ranking 148th. Qatar has two entries this year, Qatar University and Hamad bin Khalifa University which rank 201-250 and 401-450 respectively. 

Kuwait’s single entrant the American University of the Middle East ranks 351-400 in the world. Oman also has one entry, Sultan Qaboos University, and comes in at 501-550. Jordan’s two universities in the rankings this year include two universities in the global top 300: University of Jordan (151-200) and Jordan University of Science and Technology (251-300). 

Israel contains seven universities featured in the rankings this year, including three in the top 300: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (114th), Tel Aviv University (201-250) and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (251-300). 

Top universities for computer science in Latin America

In Latin America, Mexico has five computer science universities in the ranking, with one of these, Tecnólogico de Monterrey in the top 100 in the world at 86th. Argentina has two featured universities this year; Universidad de Buenos Aires (201-250) and Universidad Nacional de La Plata (551-600). 

13 of the world’s top universities for computer science can be found in Brazil, including Universidade de Brasília which ranks 551-600. 

Of Chile’s six universities, two are in the top 150 for computer science: Universidad de Chile (106th) and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (148th). 

Top universities for computer science in the Africa

South Africa has two computer science universities in the rankings this year: University of Cape Town (351-400) and University of Pretoria (501-550). 

Egypt has six universities in the computer science university rankings, with Cairo University coming first in the country at 151-200, scoring particularly well in the H-index citations indicator.