Top universities for mathematics

The recently released QS World University Rankings by Subject features 531 of the top higher education institutions to study mathematics. 

The subject rankings are based on five indicators: academic and employer reputation, citations per paper, H-index citations (a way of measuring the productivity and published work of a scientist or scholar), and international research network. You can find more details about the methodology behind the subject rankings here. 

Read on as we discover the best universities for mathematics in each region. Alternatively, if you would like to see the full list of top universities that offer courses in mathematics, click here. 

This year there are 91 universities offering top mathematics courses in the United States and 21 in Canada. Overall, North America is home to 21 of the world’s top 50 mathematics universities in the world. 

The US is home to six of the top 10 mathematics schools worldwide. It places a strong emphasis on international collaboration. Our research partners at Elsevier found that 40 percent of the US’ research papers involve some international collaboration – way above the global average of 22 percent. Additionally, a quarter of these papers get into the top 10 percent of academic journals. 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT retains its status as the world’s best university to study mathematics for a seventh consecutive year, receiving a perfect score for academic reputation and H-index citations. Outside of the top 10, notable schools in the US include University of California Los Angeles (12th), California Institute of Technology (17th) and Carnegie Mellon University (19th). 

Canada is home to three of the top 50 universities to study mathematics. The highest-ranked of these is University of Toronto (23rd), with a high score for citations per paper. Other Canadian top 50 entries are University of British Columbia (32nd) and University of Waterloo (43rd). 

220 mathematics schools featured in this year’s rankings are located in Europe. 

The United Kingdom has the majority of these mathematics schools – with 39 universities featured in this year’s subject rankings – and six of these are in the global top 50. Elsevier found that more than 60 percent of the UK’s academic research is a result of international collaboration, with a strong research focus of stock markets and market volatility, as well as on statistical mathematics and models of estimation. 

The University of Cambridge is this year’s top-ranked European university for mathematics, in second place globally, earning a high score in the academic reputation indicator. Other noteworthy UK universities include The University of Warwick (19th), The University of Edinburgh (36th) and University College London (41st). 

Germany also performs well in this year’s rankings, with 32 universities currently featured. The top-performing institutions this year are Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn (39th) and Technical University of Munich (43rd). In common with some other European countries, Germany’s research mirrors some of the societal and economic pressures of the time, focusing on stock market volatility, financial markets, and theoretical and algebraic mathematics research. 

Spain is home to 14 of Europe’s top schools for mathematics. Of these, five are in the world top 150, including the country’s top-ranked Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (96th). France has 22 entries in this year’s subject rankings, including Sorbonne University which ranks within the top 10 worldwide as well as Université Paris Cité (52nd) and École Normale Superieure de Lyon (73rd) which also rank within the top 100. 

Italy has 19 universities in the mathematics rankings, including three in the top 100: Politecnico di Milano (34th), Sapienza University of Rome (65th) and Politecnico di Torino (98th). Belgium has seven universities with its top-ranked university KU Leuven (87th) being the only Belgian entry to the global top 100. Austria has five universities and also has one in the top 100: University of Vienna (87th). 

Denmark has four universities in the mathematics rankings with the University of Copenhagen (116th) achieving the highest score in the country.  

Switzerland and Portugal both have five entries with one Swiss university, ETH Zurich, ranking within the top 10 as well as ranking highly for H-index citations. Furthermore, Portugal’s top-ranked university, University of Lisbon (151-200), earns a high score for the citations per paper indicator.