Top Universities for Computer Science in 2021

Top Universities for Computer Science in 2021

By H. Young

Updated April 27, 2023 Updated April 27
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The recently released QS World University Rankings by Subject 2021 features 650 of the top higher education institutions to study computer science.

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

Read on to learn more about the best computer science schools in each region. Alternatively, if you would like to explore the computer science schools in further detail, click here to view the full table.

Top 10 Universities for Computer Science in the World

Based on the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2021

Rank

Name of Institution

Location

1

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

United States

2

Stanford University

United States

3

Carnegie Mellon University

United States

4

National University of Singapore (NUS)

Singapore

5

University of California, Berkeley (UCB)

United States

6

University of Oxford

United Kingdom

7

Harvard University

United States

8

University of Cambridge

United Kingdom

9

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Switzerland

10

ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)

Switzerland

See the full ranking for computer science

Top universities for computer science in the US & Canada

In this year’s QS Subject Rankings for computer science, 110 of the 650 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 (14th), University of Washington (15th), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA, 17th) and Columbia University (18th). Cornell University, New York University (NYU) and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) all rank in the world top 25.

Canada is home to 24 excellent computer science universities, including University of Toronto in 11th place. Other notable computer science universities in Canada are the University of Waterloo in joint 23rd place and the University of British Columbia which remains in 25th place this year.

Top universities for computer science in Europe

The UK has an impressive 52 top universities in the QS World Rankings by Subject 2021 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 (16th), University College London (UCL) (joint 23rd) and the University of Edinburgh (26th).

Ireland is home to seven universities featured in the subject rankings in 2021, including Trinity College Dublin at joint 89th.

In Denmark, there are five top computer science universities, including Aarhus University in the world top 100. Similarly, Finland is home to five top universities in the subject rankings, including new entrant this year, the University of JyväskyläSweden has 10 universities in the rankings, including KTH, Royal Institute of Technology in 42nd place.

The Netherlands performs well in the subject rankings for computer science in 2020, with no fewer than 12 universities featured, and three of these in the worldwide top 100; University of Amsterdam (40th), Eindhoven University of Technology (joint 64th) and Delft University of Technology (72nd). 

FranceGermany and Italy all perform extremely well in the rankings, France hosting 29th top computer science schools (including Université PSL (Paris Sciences & Lettres) which rises four places this year to joint 35th) and Germany with 30 of the best universities in the world for computer science, with its top university, Technische Universität München, in joint 35th place worldwide. Italy is home to 22 ranked universities, with Politecnico di Milano coming out on top for computer science in joint 44th place.

Spain has 13 universities in the rankings, including three new entrants this year: Universidad de Salamanca, Universitat de Valencia and Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.

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 151-200 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 22 universities featuring in the subject rankings in 2021, with three of these appearing in the worldwide top 50: the University of Melbourne (39th), the University of Sydney (50th) and Australian National University (ANU, 51st).

New Zealand’s seven universities include the University of Auckland in 106th 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 35 universities, and three of these in the top 50 worldwide: Tsinghua University (13th) Peking University (20th) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (climbing five places this year to 29th).

Over in South Korea we have 18 top computer science universities, including Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 32nd place and Seoul National University in 41st place. Six of the top universities for computer science are found in Hong Kong, such as the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST, 30th), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK, 31st) and University of Hong Kong (HKU, 43rd).

Japan have 16 entrants in the rankings this year, including the University of Tokyo, which rises one place this year to 27th. Singapore has four top universities in the rankings, with the National University of Singapore climbing eight places this year to rank in the global top 10 (in fourth place).

India performs well this year, with 23 universities featured in the rankings. Of these, two are in the worldwide top 100; Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB, 67th) and Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD, 70th). 

Taiwan has 12 of the top universities for computer science including National Taiwan University (NTU) in the top 100 worldwide, at joint 62nd. Macau’s sole entrant, University of Macau, places 351-400th in 2021.

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 100 in the world at 94th. Argentina has two featured universities this year; Universidad de Buenos Aires (151-200th) and Universidad Nacional de La Plata (551-600th).

13 of the world’s top universities for computer science can be found in Brazil, including Universidade de São Paulo (USP), which ranks at joint 79th, the highest ranked school in Latin America, along with Chile’s Universidad de Chile.

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 350th place. Egypt has four universities in the computer science university rankings this year, with Cairo University coming top, in 151-200th place, and scoring particularly well in the employer reputation indicator.

Bahrain’s single entrant, the University of Bahrain, ranks 601-650th in the world. Iran is home to three universities in the ranking with the top ranked Sharif University of Technology in 251-300th place.

The United Arab Emirates also has six of the top universities for computer science (with two new entries this year), with United Arab Emirates University coming out on top in 201-250th place. Qatar University, Qatar’s sole entrant this year, also places 201-250th.

Kuwait’s single entrant, Kuwait University, ranks 501-550th in the world. Oman’s Sultan Qaboos University is Oman’s only university in the rankings this year and comes in at 551-600th. Jordan’s four universities in the rankings this year include new entrant Princess Sumaya University for Technology and two computer science universities in the top 300 worldwide, including Jordan University of Science and Technology and University of Jordan (both 201-250th).

Israel has five universities featured in the rankings this year, including three in the top 250: Technion - Israel Institute of Technology  (joint 103rd), Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University (both 201-250th) .

This article was originally published in March 2021 . It was last updated in April 2023

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