Best universities for computer science degrees 2024

Find the best universities for computer science using Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings data

October 28 2020

Studying computer science is a smart bet in today’s world, as the career opportunities for tech-savvy graduates are expanding every year.

There is also an extensive choice of universities when it comes to deciding where to study the subject.

Some 827 schools feature in the ranking for computer science by Times Higher Education this year.

Universities by degree subject

Best universities for arts and humanities
Best universities for business and economics
Best universities for clinical, pre-clinical and health
Best universities for engineering and technology
Best universities for life sciences
Best universities for physical sciences
Best universities for social sciences
Best universities for law degrees
Best universities for education degrees
Best universities for psychology degrees

Just over a sixth of the featured universities are American, and 59 institutions are based in the UK. Canada is represented by 24 institutions while 25 Australian universities are ranked.

Computer science degrees vary in their focus and specialisms. Some courses are very theoretical, while others are more focused on programming.

The ranking uses the same methodology as the World University Rankings, but with slightly higher weighting given to the innovation metric and lower weighting for citations. The full methodology can be found here.

Scroll down to find out what you can do with a computer science degree.

Best universities worldwide

Best universities in the world
Best universities in the United States
Best universities in the UK
Best universities in Canada
Best universities in Australia
Best universities in Europe
Best universities in France
Best universities in the Netherlands
Best universities in Germany

Top 5 universities for computer science

1. University of Oxford

Although computer science is a relatively modern discipline, the University of Oxford has one of the oldest departments in the country, formerly known as the Oxford University Computing Laboratory.

Since its beginnings, the department has provided lectures for undergraduates and trained research students at postgraduate level.

In addition to core computer science topics, students can take courses in computational biology, quantum computing, information systems, software verification, software engineering and computational linguistics.

The department offers three undergraduate degrees: single honours computer science, mathematics and computer science, and computer science and philosophy.

Like other students, computer science students – whether undergraduate or postgraduate – belong to one of Oxford’s colleges, where they live, eat, socialise and study.

2. Stanford University

The Stanford University computer science department was established in 1965. The department offers bachelor’s of science, master’s of science and doctor of philosophy degrees.

The department undertakes research in many areas, including artificial intelligence, robotics, foundations of computer science, scientific computing and programming systems. There is also a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary research across chemistry, genetics, linguistics, construction and medicine, among others.

The home of the computer science department is the Gates Computer Science Building, named after Bill Gates, who donated $6 million to the project.

3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The department of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology confidently declares: “Our students change the world.”

Many of its alumni feature on lists of influential entrepreneurs making an impact at home and abroad.

Students are encouraged to develop start-ups, and research projects have explored problems such as calculating the financial risks of renewable energy and developing faster parallel computing.

Undergraduates are enrolled on a flexible curriculum that allows them to focus on both abstract theory and practical problems in computer science. Students can major in computer science or in both computer science and molecular biology.

Graduates go on to design video games, work on supercomputers, research robotics and often join big companies such as Google and Microsoft.

What can you do with a computer science degree?

4. ETH Zurich

ETH Zurich has a history of developing software and designing computer systems. Eventually, these projects called for a dedicated computer science department, which was created in 1981.

The department covers many areas of computer science, including computational intelligence, networks and distributed systems, algorithms and theory, and information security. Different programming languages are also taught on software engineering courses.

There are close relationships with other departments within the university and with partners in business and industry, such as IBM, Microsoft, Google, SAP and Disney, with which the university collaborates on research projects.

ETH Zurich dates back to 1855, just a few years after the formation of the federal state of Switzerland. Created as a centre for scientific knowledge and innovation, it remains a top institution for a range of subjects.

5. Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science offers both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Students are able to study courses such as neural computation, computational biology, language technologies and machine learning.

Undergraduate students are able to undertake research projects in a number of areas, including robotics and human-computer interaction. In the spring, students present the results of their work at the university-wide Meeting of the Minds celebration of undergraduate research.

Student experience of studying computer science

Women in STEM: stories from MIT students
Studying at POSTECH, South Korea
Caltech: ‘uniquely difficult but a wonderful place to study’
Keeping up with coding
Women in STEM: ‘I hope that one day the tech sector will be more diverse’

Best universities for computer science 2021

Click each institution to view its World University Ranking 2021 profile

Computer science rank 2021	Computer science rank 2020	University	Country/region
1	1	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
2	2	Stanford University	United States
3	4	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
4	3	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
5	6	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
6	5	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
7	8	Harvard University	United States
8	11	National University of Singapore	Singapore
9	NR	University of California, Berkeley	United States
10	7	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
11	9	Princeton University	United States
12	15	Tsinghua University	China
13	16	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
=14	14	Cornell University	United States
=14	18	Technical University of Munich	Germany
=16	12	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
=16	20	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland
=18	13	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
=18	19	UCL	United Kingdom
20	29	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
21	26	University of Washington	United States
22	24	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
23	23	University of Toronto	Canada
24	21	Columbia University	United States
25	10	California Institute of Technology	United States
26	22	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
27	30	Johns Hopkins University	United States
28	27	Peking University	China
29	28	Yale University	United States
30	25	University of Texas at Austin	United States
31	17	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
=32	39	The University of Chicago	United States
=32	=31	University of Pennsylvania	United States
34	=31	University of Montreal	Canada
35	45	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
36	33	New York University	United States
37	35	University of California, San Diego	United States
38	37	University of Southern California	United States
39	38	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
40	41	Zhejiang University	China
41	42	The University of Tokyo	Japan
42	44	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)	South Korea
43	36	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
44	=50	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
=45	34	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France
=45	40	University of Waterloo	Canada
47	=47	Seoul National University	South Korea
48	43	University of British Columbia	Canada
49	49	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
50	52	KU Leuven	Belgium
51	53	Duke University	United States
52	58	LMU Munich	Germany
53	=47	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
54	=79	UNSW Sydney	Australia
55	63	École Polytechnique	France
=56	66	McGill University	Canada
=56	55	Technical University of Berlin	Germany
58	54	University of California, Santa Barbara	United States
=59	65	University of Freiburg	Germany
=59	46	RWTH Aachen University	Germany
61	68	Technical University of Darmstadt	Germany
62	67	National Taiwan University (NTU)	Taiwan
63	=72	Nanjing University	China
64	=56	University of Melbourne	Australia
65	=69	Australian National University	Australia
66	=56	Aalto University	Finland
67	60	Rice University	United States
68	61	University of Science and Technology of China	China
69	=50	Karlsruhe Institute of Technology	Germany
70	=86	University of Sydney	Australia
=71	82	Kyoto University	Japan
=71	88	Sorbonne University	France
73	=69	KTH Royal Institute of Technology	Sweden
=74	78	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
=74	89	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	United States
76	85	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
77	=92	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
78	59	Eindhoven University of Technology	Netherlands
79	98	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
=80	64	Technion Israel Institute of Technology	Israel
=80	76	TU Wien	Austria
82	=72	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
83	=79	University of Technology Sydney	Australia
=84	101–125	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=84	71	Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)	South Korea
86	=74	Brown University	United States
87	=83	University of Zurich	Switzerland
88	62	University of California, Irvine	United States
89	90	University of Luxembourg	Luxembourg
90	101–125	Fudan University	China
=91	99	Michigan State University	United States
=91	95	Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT)	Russian Federation
93	77	University of Massachusetts	United States
94	101–125	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
95	=79	King’s College London	United Kingdom
=96	126–150	Indian Institute of Science	India
=96	NR	Tokyo Institute of Technology	Japan
98	96	University of Adelaide	Australia
99	101–125	University of Bonn	Germany
=100	100	Aarhus University	Denmark
=100	126–150	Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)	South Korea
101–125	101–125	University of Alberta	Canada
101–125	101–125	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	University of Bologna	Italy
101–125	91	Boston University	United States
101–125	=92	Chalmers University of Technology	Sweden
101–125	151–175	Hong Kong Baptist University	Hong Kong
101–125	=74	ITMO University	Russian Federation
101–125	126–150	Korea University	South Korea
101–125	126–150	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	Macau University of Science and Technology	Macao
101–125	101–125	McMaster University	Canada
101–125	176–200	National Chiao Tung University	Taiwan
101–125	=83	Northwestern University	United States
101–125	NR	Paris-Saclay University	France
101–125	97	Polytechnic University of Milan	Italy
101–125	201–250	Qatar University	Qatar
101–125	101–125	Queen Mary University of London	United Kingdom
101–125	=86	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
101–125	101–125	Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	University of Surrey	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	Télécom Paris	France
101–125	101–125	University of Trento	Italy
101–125	126–150	University of Tübingen	Germany
126–150	101–125	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
126–150	NR	University of California, Davis	United States
126–150	151–175	Central South University	China
126–150	126–150	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
126–150	126–150	Dartmouth College	United States
126–150	101–125	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg	Germany
126–150	151–175	Graz University of Technology	Austria
126–150	126–150	Harbin Institute of Technology	China
126–150	126–150	Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Israel
126–150	151–175	University of Helsinki	Finland
126–150	126–150	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia
126–150	101–125	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russian Federation
126–150	126–150	University of Malaya	Malaysia
126–150	101–125	University of Minnesota	United States
126–150	101–125	Northeastern University	United States
126–150	151–175	Queen’s University Belfast	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	The University of Queensland	Australia
126–150	NR	University of Rochester	United States
126–150	101–125	Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies – Pisa	Italy
126–150	101–125	University of South Australia	Australia
126–150	151–175	Stony Brook University	United States
126–150	126–150	Technical University of Denmark	Denmark
126–150	101–125	Tel Aviv University	Israel
126–150	151–175	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
126–150	101–125	TU Dresden	Germany
126–150	151–175	Università della Svizzera Italiana	Switzerland
126–150	151–175	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	Aalborg University	Denmark
151–175	151–175	University of Basel	Switzerland
151–175	101–125	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
151–175	201–250	École des Ponts ParisTech	France
151–175	126–150	Free University of Bozen-Bolzano	Italy
151–175	201–250	Ghent University	Belgium
151–175	126–150	Griffith University	Australia
151–175	126–150	University of Groningen	Netherlands
151–175	176–200	Huazhong University of Science and Technology	China
151–175	176–200	IMT Atlantique	France
151–175	301–400	Kepler-university-linz" data-mz="" data-module="article-uni-link">Johannes Kepler University of Linz	Austria
151–175	251–300	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	University of Mannheim	Germany
151–175	201–250	Monash University	Australia
151–175	126–150	National Tsing Hua University	Taiwan
151–175	126–150	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
151–175	101–125	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
151–175	151–175	University of Passau	Germany
151–175	151–175	Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University	Russian Federation
151–175	126–150	Sejong University	South Korea
151–175	201–250	Simon Fraser University	Canada
151–175	126–150	University of Stuttgart	Germany
151–175	151–175	William & Mary	United States
176–200	126–150	University of California, Riverside	United States
176–200	126–150	École Normale Supérieure de Lyon	France
176–200	126–150	University of Geneva	Switzerland
176–200	176–200	University of Idaho	United States
176–200	NR	Illinois Institute of Technology	United States
176–200	251–300	King Saud University	Saudi Arabia
176–200	201–250	University of Klagenfurt	Austria
176–200	201–250	Lehigh University	United States
176–200	176–200	University of Leicester	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	Linköping University	Sweden
176–200	151–175	University of Macau	Macao
176–200	201–250	New Jersey Institute of Technology	United States
176–200	151–175	North Carolina State University	United States
176–200	201–250	University of Notre Dame	United States
176–200	201–250	University of Oslo	Norway
176–200	176–200	University of Oulu	Finland
176–200	176–200	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
176–200	126–150	Sapienza University of Rome	Italy
176–200	201–250	Sharif University of Technology	Iran
176–200	201–250	Southeast University	China
176–200	201–250	University of Tartu	Estonia
176–200	301–400	Tohoku University	Japan
176–200	151–175	University of Twente	Netherlands
176–200	201–250	Uppsala University	Sweden
176–200	176–200	Washington University in St Louis	United States
176–200	176–200	Xi’an Jiaotong University	China