The best computer science universities in Europe

The coveted computer science degree has promised graduates six-figure salaries and exciting careers in high-tech spaces since the personal computer took off in the 1990s.

As an academic discipline, computer science dates back even further. In the 1960s, Purdue University became the first major institution to found a department dedicated to the practice, complete with history books written by faculty members because, at that point, none existed.

These days, the U.S., China, and Singapore are often associated with top-tier computer science degrees, but there are highly respected universities in nearly every corner of the world offering an education in the field. Revelo collected rankings from U.S. News and World Report to identify the top 10 universities for computer science in Europe as part of a larger global analysis.

European countries—Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, and Switzerland—dominate the top five list of countries paying data scientists the highest salaries. In the UK, software developers are in high demand. The continent is home to diverse cities and countries with a booming tech scene and the universities to produce the graduates who keep it growing.

Web designers, software developers, computer network architects, research scientists, and systems administrators all leverage computer science knowledge as the basis of their job. And it’s a job that analysts project to be in high demand—even as layoffs at major tech companies dominate headlines.

The typical U.S. worker in a computer science-based career today earns an income of $100,530, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The bureau also estimates the industry will require 377,500 new workers each year for the next decade, as the industry is set to grow faster than the average growth rate of all other industries.

With the tech industry facing criticism for lacking diversity and products like artificial intelligence built on mostly white male perspectives, employers could benefit from looking beyond traditional institutions in recruiting efforts. From 2010-2020, the number of women graduating from U.S. schools with computer science degrees rose only 3%, and graduates from underrepresented racial groups remained flat at just over 20% of all graduates.

U.S. News and World Report ranked 778 universities globally with at least 250 academic research papers, calculating its subject scores on a 0-100 scale based on the number of publications and citations an institution received, its global and regional research reputation, and other factors.

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#19. Polytechnic University of Catalonia (tie)

– Location: Barcelona, Spain
– Computer science score: 60.4 out of 100 (#105 globally)
– Overall score: 54.9 out of 100 (#385 globally)
– Enrollment: 22,280

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#19. Sorbonne Universite (tie)

– Location: Paris, France
– Computer science score: 60.4 out of 100 (#105 globally)
– Overall score: 75.2 out of 100 (#48 globally)
– Enrollment: 44,649

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#18. University of Zurich

– Location: Zurich, Switzerland
– Computer science score: 61.7 out of 100 (#99 globally)
– Overall score: 73.3 out of 100 (#67 globally)
– Enrollment: 25,255

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#17. Technische Universitat Wien

– Location: Vienna, Austria
– Computer science score: 61.8 out of 100 (#98 globally)
– Overall score: 54.0 out of 100 (#416 globally)
– Enrollment: Not available

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#16. Royal Institute of Technology

– Location: Stockholm, Sweden
– Computer science score: 62.7 out of 100 (#96 globally)
– Overall score: 61.0 out of 100 (#240 globally)
– Enrollment: Not available

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#15. University of Granada

– Location: Granada, Spain
– Computer science score: 63.3 out of 100 (#93 globally)
– Overall score: 57.8 out of 100 (#313 globally)
– Enrollment: Not available

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#14. Polytechnic University of Milan

– Location: Milan, Italy
– Computer science score: 63.9 out of 100 (#87 globally)
– Overall score: 58.5 out of 100 (#297 globally)
– Enrollment: Not available

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#13. Universite de Paris

– Location: Paris, France
– Computer science score: 64.2 out of 100 (#84 globally)
– Overall score: 75.2 out of 100 (#48 globally)
– Enrollment: Not available

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#12. Universite Paris Saclay

– Location: Saint-Aubin, France
– Computer science score: 66.4 out of 100 (#72 globally)
– Overall score: 74.1 out of 100 (#60 globally)
– Enrollment: Not available

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#11. Aalto University

– Location: Esbo, Finland
– Computer science score: 66.5 out of 100 (#71 globally)
– Overall score: 59.5 out of 100 (#273 globally)
– Enrollment: 13,306

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#10. Delft University of Technology

– Location: Delft, Netherlands
– Computer science score: 68.1 out of 100 (#65 globally)
– Overall score: 65.1 out of 100 (#169 globally)
– Enrollment: Not available

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#9. KU Leuven

– Location: Leuven, Belgium
– Computer science score: 68.8 out of 100 (#62 globally)
– Overall score: 75.1 out of 100 (#50 globally)
– Enrollment: 47,663

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#8. University of Edinburgh

– Location: Edinburgh, United Kingdom
– Computer science score: 71.5 out of 100 (#53 globally)
– Overall score: 77.8 out of 100 (#34 globally)
– Enrollment: 32,800

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#7. Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne

– Location: Lausanne, Switzerland
– Computer science score: 74.7 out of 100 (#44 globally)
– Overall score: 73.2 out of 100 (#69 globally)
– Enrollment: 11,641

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#6. University of Cambridge

– Location: Cambridge (U.K.), United Kingdom
– Computer science score: 75.6 out of 100 (#41 globally)
– Overall score: 86.1 out of 100 (#8 globally)
– Enrollment: 20,385

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#5. Imperial College London

– Location: London (U.K.), United Kingdom
– Computer science score: 77.6 out of 100 (#33 globally)
– Overall score: 84.3 out of 100 (#13 globally)
– Enrollment: 18,455

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#4. University College London

– Location: London (U.K.), United Kingdom
– Computer science score: 79.0 out of 100 (#25 globally)
– Overall score: 84.4 out of 100 (#12 globally)
– Enrollment: 36,900

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#3. Technical University of Munich

– Location: Munich, Germany
– Computer science score: 81.2 out of 100 (#17 globally)
– Overall score: 72.6 out of 100 (#79 globally)
– Enrollment: 33,960

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#2. University of Oxford

– Location: Oxford, United Kingdom
– Computer science score: 85.0 out of 100 (#11 globally)
– Overall score: 86.8 out of 100 (#5 globally)
– Enrollment: Not available

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#1. ETH Zurich

– Location: Zurich, Switzerland
– Computer science score: 88.9 out of 100 (#8 globally)
– Overall score: 79.3 out of 100 (#29 globally)
– Enrollment: 21,209

This story features data reporting by Paxtyn Merten, writing by Dom DiFurio, and is part of a series utilizing data automation across 5 regions.

This story originally appeared on Revelo and was produced and
distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.