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Best universities for computer science degrees 2024

Find the best universities for computer science using Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2024 data

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October 26 2023
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Top 10 universities in the world for computer science degrees 2024

Scroll down for the full list of best universities in the world for computer science.

 Computer science rank 2024   Computer science rank 2023  University Country/region
 1   1  University of Oxford United Kingdom
 2   3  Stanford University United States
 3   2  Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States
 4   5  Carnegie Mellon University United States
 5   4  ETH Zurich Switzerland
 6   9  Harvard University United States
 7   6  University of Cambridge United Kingdom
 8   =11  Imperial College London United Kingdom
 9   =11  Princeton University United States
 10   8  University of California, Berkeley United States

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

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

Some 1,027 schools feature in the Times Higher Education ranking of computer science degrees for this year.

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More than 120 of the featured universities are American, and 61 institutions are based in the UK. Canada and Australia are also well represented with 28 and 30 institutions respectively. 

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 in Australia for computer science degrees
Best universities in the UK for computer science degrees
Best universities in the US for computer science degrees
Best universities in Canada for computer science degrees

Top 5 universities for computer science

5. 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.

4. Carnegie Mellon University

The Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science was established more than 25 years ago.

The university introduced the US’ first bachelor’s degree in artificial intelligence in 2018, and it added a bachelor’s programme in human-computer interaction in 2020.

The university offers a wide range of undergraduate programmes, majors and minors including robotics and human-computer interaction.

There are also several master’s and doctoral programmes within the field of computer science. 

3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Many of MIT’s 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?

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 (£4.9 million) to the project.

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.

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Best universities for computer science 2024

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2024 profile.

 Computer science rank 2024   Computer science rank 2023  University Country/region
 1   1  University of Oxford United Kingdom
 2   3  Stanford University United States
 3   2  Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States
 4   5  Carnegie Mellon University United States
 5   4  ETH Zurich Switzerland
 6   9  Harvard University United States
 7   6  University of Cambridge United Kingdom
 8   =11  Imperial College London United Kingdom
 9   =11  Princeton University United States
 10   8  University of California, Berkeley United States
 11   7  National University of Singapore Singapore
 12   13  Tsinghua University China
 13   19  California Institute of Technology United States
 14   16  Cornell University United States
 15   10  Technical University of Munich Germany
 16   20  Peking University China
 17   =22  École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland
 18   15  University of Washington United States
 19   18  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign United States
 20   14  Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Singapore
 21   26  University of California, Los Angeles United States
 22   17  Georgia Institute of Technology United States
 23   32  Yale University United States
 24   21  Columbia University United States
 25   =22  University of Toronto Canada
 26   24  University of Edinburgh United Kingdom
 27   28  Johns Hopkins University United States
 28   =29  UCL United Kingdom
 29   25  New York University United States
 30   27  Shanghai Jiao Tong University China
 31   =29  The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong
 32   31  University of Texas at Austin United States
 33   42  The University of Tokyo Japan
 34   35  University of Pennsylvania United States
 35   =38  Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris France
 36   33  University of California, San Diego United States
 37   =38  The University of Chicago United States
 38   36  Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
 39   43  University of Waterloo Canada
 40   41  KU Leuven Belgium
 41   37  University of Michigan-Ann Arbor United States
 42   46  Institut Polytechnique de Paris France
 43   34  University of Montreal Canada
 44   40  Zhejiang University China
 45   =48  Delft University of Technology Netherlands
 46   44  Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) South Korea
 47   45  University of Maryland, College Park United States
 48   =66  Université Paris-Saclay France
 49   47  University of British Columbia Canada
 50   50  RWTH Aachen University Germany
 51   =48  Seoul National University South Korea
 52   57  Monash University Australia
 53   55  University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
 54   =91  Purdue University West Lafayette United States
 55   51  University of Melbourne Australia
 56   59  Technical University of Berlin Germany
 57   85  University of Massachusetts United States
 58   58  Nanjing University China
 =59   52  Duke University United States
 =59   64  University of Science and Technology of China China
 61   77  KTH Royal Institute of Technology Sweden
 62   65  LMU Munich Germany
 63   =53  University of Southern California United States
 64   =82  City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
 65   60  University of California, Santa Barbara United States
 66   61  University of Amsterdam Netherlands
 67   71  Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Germany
 68   63  University of Wisconsin-Madison United States
 69   =86  Kyoto University Japan
 =70   76  University of California, Irvine United States
 =70   =66  Technical University of Darmstadt Germany
 72   =89  Eindhoven University of Technology Netherlands
 73   81  Fudan University China
 74   74  Brown University United States
 =75   =53  McGill University Canada
 =75   72  Sorbonne University France
 77   62  University of Sydney Australia
 78   69  University of Technology Sydney Australia
 79   =66  Australian National University Australia
 =80   88  Politecnico di Milano Italy
 =80   =82  Yonsei University (Seoul campus) South Korea
 82   =86  University of Manchester United Kingdom
 83   70  UNSW Sydney Australia
 84   93  TU Wien Austria
 85   75  University of Adelaide Australia
 86   73  Aalto University Finland
 87   79  Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong
 88   80  Michigan State University United States
 89   101–125  University of Alberta Canada
 90   98  Northwestern University United States
 91   101–125  Boston University United States
 92   101–125  Northeastern University, US United States
 =93   126–150  Aarhus University Denmark
 =93   101–125  Rice University United States
 95   99  University of Bonn Germany
 96   101–125  King’s College London United Kingdom
 =97   =89  Penn State (Main campus) United States
 =97   126–150  Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan
 =99   =91  University of California, Davis United States
 =99   84  Queen Mary University of London United Kingdom
 101–125   101–125  University of Bologna Italy
 101–125   126–150  University of Bristol United Kingdom
 101–125   126–150  Chalmers University of Technology Sweden
 101–125   78  University of Freiburg Germany
 101–125   176–200  Harbin Institute of Technology China
 101–125   101–125  Indian Institute of Science India
 101–125   101–125  Korea University South Korea
 101–125   126–150  Linköping University Sweden
 101–125   151–175  Macquarie University Australia
 101–125   101–125  National Taiwan University (NTU) Taiwan
 101–125   94  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States
 101–125   =95  Qatar University Qatar
 101–125   101–125  Ruhr University Bochum Germany
 101–125   151–175  Sapienza University of Rome Italy
 101–125   101–125  Simon Fraser University Canada
 101–125   151–175  University of Stuttgart Germany
 101–125   101–125  Technical University of Denmark Denmark
 101–125   126–150  Technion Israel Institute of Technology Israel
 101–125   126–150  Tel Aviv University Israel
 101–125   151–175  Texas A&M University United States
 101–125   101–125  University of Tübingen Germany
 101–125   =95  Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University United States
 101–125   101–125  Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Netherlands
 101–125   126–150  University of Warwick United Kingdom
 101–125   101–125  University of Zurich Switzerland
 126–150   151–175  Aalborg University Denmark
 126–150   126–150  University of California, Riverside United States
 126–150   176–200  University of Colorado Boulder United States
 126–150   101–125  University of Copenhagen Denmark
 126–150   151–175  École Normale Supérieure de Lyon France
 126–150   151–175  University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Germany
 126–150   101–125  University of Illinois Chicago United States
 126–150   56  King Abdulaziz University Saudi Arabia
 126–150   101–125  University of Luxembourg Luxembourg
 126–150   201–250  Osaka University Japan
 126–150   126–150  University of Oslo Norway
 126–150   101–125  The University of Queensland Australia
 126–150   176–200  Shenzhen University China
 126–150   101–125  University of Southampton United Kingdom
 126–150   126–150  Stony Brook University United States
 126–150   176–200  Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) South Korea
 126–150   101–125  University of Surrey United Kingdom
 126–150   126–150  Swinburne University of Technology Australia
 126–150   151–175  Tohoku University Japan
 126–150   151–175  TU Dresden Germany
 126–150   201–250  University of Twente Netherlands
 126–150   151–175  University College Dublin Ireland
 126–150   176–200  University of Vienna Austria
 126–150   201–250  Wuhan University China
 151–175   126–150  Arizona State University (Tempe) United States
 151–175   176–200  University of Birmingham United Kingdom
 151–175   151–175  University of Glasgow United Kingdom
 151–175   126–150  Graz University of Technology Austria
 151–175   151–175  University of Groningen Netherlands
 151–175   126–150  Huazhong University of Science and Technology China
 151–175   151–175  Kyung Hee University South Korea
 151–175   126–150  Lancaster University United Kingdom
 151–175   201–250  University of Leeds United Kingdom
 151–175   151–175  University of Macau Macao
 151–175   151–175  University of Mannheim Germany
 151–175   176–200  North Carolina State University United States
 151–175   201–250  University of Notre Dame United States
 151–175   201–250  Ohio State University (Main campus) United States
 151–175   126–150  University of Oulu Finland
 151–175   151–175  Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) South Korea
 151–175   126–150  Queensland University of Technology Australia
 151–175   176–200  Radboud University Nijmegen Netherlands
 151–175   101–125  Rutgers University – New Brunswick United States
 151–175   176–200  Sejong University South Korea
 151–175   126–150  Sun Yat-sen University China
 151–175   151–175  University of Trento Italy
 151–175   251–300  University of Virginia (Main campus) United States
 151–175   =95  University of Warsaw Poland
 176–200   176–200  University of Antwerp Belgium
 176–200   176–200  University of Auckland New Zealand
 176–200   151–175  University of Basel Switzerland
 176–200   201–250  University at Buffalo United States
 176–200   201–250  University of California, Santa Cruz United States
 176–200   201–250  Dartmouth College United States
 176–200   151–175  Deakin University Australia
 176–200   201–250  University of Florida United States
 176–200   251–300  Free University of Berlin Germany
 176–200   176–200  University of Helsinki Finland
 176–200   201–250  Johannes Kepler University of Linz Austria
 176–200   151–175  King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals Saudi Arabia
 176–200   201–250  Loughborough University United Kingdom
 176–200   101–125  Macau University of Science and Technology Macao
 176–200   126–150  University of Malaya Malaysia
 176–200   176–200  University of Minnesota United States
 176–200   176–200  University of Newcastle Australia
 176–200   201–250  University of Nottingham United Kingdom
 176–200   201–250  Université du Québec Canada
 176–200   251–300  RMIT University Australia
 176–200   151–175  University of Rochester United States
 176–200   176–200  Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies – Pisa Italy
 176–200   151–175  University of South Australia Australia
 176–200   201–250  Trinity College Dublin Ireland
 176–200   251–300  University of Würzburg Germany

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