Cranfield University has been ranked among the world’s top universities in the latest QS World University Rankings by Subject.

In the subject area ‘Engineering – Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing’, Cranfield has maintained its ranking in the top 30 global institutions. Cranfield also maintained its position in the top 150 for ‘Business and Management Studies’ and the top 200 of the ‘Environmental Sciences’ category.

Professor Karen Holford CBE FREng, Chief Executive and Vice-Chancellor of Cranfield University, said: “Cranfield’s excellence is recognised around the world as we continue to tackle the big challenges of our time to deliver a sustainable future. Our success in these rankings is further testament to the quality of our applied research and innovative education which provides our students with a world-class learning experience.”

In world’s top universities for nine subject areas

The QS World University Rankings put Cranfield in the world’s top universities for nine subject areas:

• Engineering – Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing
• Environmental Sciences
• Business and Management Studies
• Agriculture and Forestry
• Computer Science & Information Systems
• Accounting and Finance
• Economics and Econometrics
• Petroleum Engineering
• Materials Science

The University scored highly in employability, citation metrics and the International Research Network (IRN) metric for Engineering. The IRN identifies how well universities establish stable, enduring research collaborations

The scores highlight Cranfield’s ability to work with international partners to add value to the global bank of research, the University’s reputation with employers, and the impact and quality of its research.

Results add to a long list of achievements

The latest ranking success adds to a long list of achievements for Cranfield University which has been awarded the prestigious Queen's Anniversary Prize six times.

Last month, Cranfield School of Management’s Full-time MBA programme (The Transformation MBA) was ranked 9th in the UK, 27th in Europe and 88th in the world in the flagship 2023 Financial Times rankings. The programme is also number one in the UK for sector diversity, which relates to the industry background of students, and for its carbon footprint and net zero achievements.

The 2023 instalment of QS’s global university performance comparison offers independent data on the performance of 1,597 universities across 54 subjects in five broad subject areas. The full data can be found on the QS website. The rankings are compiled annually using research citations along with the results of global surveys of employers and academics to help prospective students identify the leading universities in a particular subject.

As a specialist postgraduate university and global leader for education and transformational research in technology and management, Cranfield does not rank in every subject area.