Top Computer Science Schools in 2020

The recently released QS World University Rankings by Subject 2020 features 601 of the top universities to study computer science.

Four different sources are used to compile the rankings: academic reputation, employer reputation, research citations per paper and H-Index (which is used to measure the productivity and impact of a university). You can find out more about how the rankings are put together in the methodology.

Read on as we explore the top computer science universities in each region around the world…

Top universities for computer science in the US & Canada

In this year’s QS Subject Rankings for computer science, 104 of the 601 schools featured are situated in the United States, with five of these in the top 10 for computer science worldwide (the most of any country). Outside of the top 10, there are plenty of top computer science universities available, including Princeton University (11^th), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA, 15^th), University of Washington (18^th) and Columbia University. Cornell University and New York University (NYU), which are all in 19^th place worldwide.

Canada is home to 22 excellent computer science universities, including University of Toronto in 10^th place. Other notable computer science universities in Canada are the University of Waterloo in 24^th place and the University of British Columbia, which climbs three places this year to 25^th.

Top universities for computer science in Europe

The UK contains an impressive 50 top universities featuring in the QS World Rankings by Subject 2020 for computer science – two of which can be found in the worldwide top 10. Outside of the top 10 but still in the worldwide top 30 are Imperial College London (14^th), University College London (UCL) and the University of Edinburgh (23^rd). Ireland is home to seven universities featured in the subject rankings in 2020, including Trinity College Dublin in the top 100.

In Denmark, there are five top computer science universities, including Aarhus University in the world top 100. Similarly, Finland is home to four top universities in the subject rankings, including new entrant this year, Tampere University. Sweden has eight universities in the rankings, including KTH, Royal Institute of Technology in 43^rd place.

The Netherlands performs well in the subject rankings for computer science in 2020, with no fewer than 11 universities featured, and three of these in the worldwide top 100; University of Amsterdam (45^th), Delft University of Technology and Eindhoven University of Technology, both ranking 51-100^th. Romania contains four of the top universities, including new entrant University of Bucharest in 551-600^th.

France, Germany and Italy all perform extremely well in the rankings, France containing 27 top computer science schools (including Université PSL (Paris Sciences & Lettres) rising four places this year to 39^th place) and Germany containing 31 of the best universities in the world for computer science, with its top university, Technische Universität München, in joint 36^th place worldwide. Italy is home to 22 ranked universities, with Politecnico di Milano coming out on top for computer science in 40^th place.

Spain has 11 universities in the rankings, including new entrant this year, Universitat Ramon Llull. Belgium has eight entries this year, with two of these, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

and Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) in the top 100.  Portugal’s three entrants include top 150 ranked University of Lisbon. Of Switzerland’s seven entries, two (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)) can be found within the top ten worldwide.

Top universities for computer science in Australia & New Zealand

Australia is home to an incredible 23 universities featuring in the subject rankings in 2020, with three of these appearing in the worldwide top 50: the University of Melbourne (32^nd), Australian National University (ANU, 41^st) and the University of Sydney (42^nd).

New Zealand’s seven universities include the University of Auckland in 51-100th place and Victoria University of Wellington (201-250th).

Top universities for computer science in Asia

Mainland China has one of the largest presences of any Asian country in the ranking with 32 universities, and three of these in the top 50 worldwide: Tsinghua University (up two places to 13^th) Peking University (joint 19^th), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (climbing four places this year to 34^th).

Over in South Korea we have 16 top computer science universities, including Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in joint 36^th place and Seoul National University in joint 48^th place. Five of the top universities for computer science are found in Hong Kong, such as the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST, 26^th), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK, 30^th) and University of Hong Kong (HKU, 38^th).

Japan have 16 entrants in the rankings this year, including the University of Tokyo, which places 28^th, despite dropping two places this year. Singapore has four top universities in the rankings, with National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University placing within the top 20, ranking 12^th and 16^th respectively.  Indonesia has five entries this year.

India performs well this year, with 20 universities featured in the rankings. Of these, two are in the worldwide top 100; Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) and Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD), which both rank 51-100^th. Singapore has fewer universities in the ranking, only four in 2020, but two of these are ranked within the top 20 worldwide – National University of Singapore (NUS) in 12^th place and Nanyang Technological University (NTU, 16^th).

Taiwan contains 12 of the top universities for computer science including National Taiwan University (NTU) in the top 100 worldwide. Macau’s sole entrant, University of Macau, places 351-400th in 2020.

Top universities for computer science in Latin America

In Latin America, Mexico has five computer science universities in the rankings this year, with one of these, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), in the top 150 in the world. Argentina has two featured universities this year; Universidad de Buenos Aires (151-200^th) and Universidad Nacional de La Plata (551-600^th).

Argentina has two universities in the rankings this year, with Universidad de Buenos Aires in the world top 200. 13 of the world’s top universities for computer science can be found in Brazil, including Universidade de São Paulo (USP), which ranks 51-100^th.

Of Chile’s five featured universities, two are in the top 150 for computer science, including Universidad de Chile (51-100^th) and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (101-150^th).

Top universities for computer science in the Africa & the Middle East

South Africa has three computer science universities in the rankings this year; with University of Cape Town in 350^th place.

Egypt has four universities in the computer science university rankings this year, with Cairo University coming top, in 101-150^th place, and scoring particularly well in the employer reputation indicator. Bahrain’s single entrant, the University of Bahrain, ranks 501-550^th in the world. Iran is home to four universities in the ranking with the top one Sharif University of Technology in 251-300^th place.

The United Arab Emirates also contain four of this year’s top universities for computer science, with United Arab Emirates University coming out on top in 251-300^th place. Qatar University, Qatar’s sole entrant this year, places 251-300^th.

Kuwait’s single entrant, Kuwait University, ranks 501-550th in the world. Oman’s Sultan Qaboos University is a new entry in the rankings this year, and comes in at 551-600th. Jordan’s three universities in the rankings this year contain two computer science universities in the top 300 worldwide, including Jordan University of Science and Technology  (201-250^th) and University of Jordan (251-300^th).

Israel contains four universities featured in the rankings this year, including three in the top 250: Technion - Israel Institute of Technology  (101-150^th), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (201-250^th) and Tel Aviv University (201-250^th) .