Northumbria's engineering courses ranked among best in the world

24th October 2017

Northumbria University’s engineering and technology courses now rank in the top 300 in the world, according to Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2018.

The World University Rankings lists the top 1,000 universities in the world and is Times Higher Education’s biggest league table to date. It is the only global university performance table to judge research-intensive universities across all of their core missions – teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

Northumbria performed particularly well in the metrics for research citations and international outlook and is one of only two modern UK universities to feature in the top 300.

With key strengths in the areas of automotive, civil, electrical, mechanical and materials engineering, Northumbria University has already proven itself to be a world leader in the engineering and technology disciplines.

Examples of global excellence in these areas include being an international pioneer in photovoltaic research. The University’s Northumberland Building was the first in the UK to be clad with photovoltaic panels to harness solar energy, and research continues in this field, with Northumbria academics leading research into new technologies to reduce the cost of photovoltaic panels in a €3.7 million European Union-funded project. The award-winning BIM Academy, a joint venture with Ryder Architecture, is a global leader in Building Information Modelling. It provides consultancy, research and education activities for the real estate and infrastructure sectors as well as providing students with industry-informed teaching and research using the latest technological advances. This partnership is currently shortlisted for the Times Higher Education’s ‘Most Innovative Contribution to Business-University Collaboration’ award.

The University is ranked top 35 in the UK for research power in this area, according to the results of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, which measures the quality of research undertaken in universities. In total, 79% of engineering research outputs were ranked as being of ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ quality.

Northumbria’s engineering subjects are internationally renowned, enjoying excellent relationships with global partner universities and researchers. As well as attracting significant numbers of international students and staff in these disciplines, the University has collaborative ventures in teaching with China and Malaysia, and also delivers on-site taught courses for major private sector clients at their bases around the world.

An extensive range of professional bodies accredit Northumbria’s courses. These include the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB); the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE); the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET); the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT) and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).

Professor Glen McHale, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Engineering and Environment at Northumbria University, said: “The growth in both research output and its citation by researchers across the world, together with a strong international outlook, as recognised by the Times Higher World Rankings, is a real credit to Engineering at Northumbria. Walking around Engineering one can feel the sense of a vibrant and dynamic environment for both staff and students, which is deserving to be recognised as being amongst the best in the world.”

This year, with support from the Higher Education Funding Council for England, Northumbria has invested £6.7 million in world-class facilities for teaching and research in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects. They include a wind tunnel, a bespoke engine test cell facility, rapid prototyping equipment, a geotechnics laboratory, a 50-tonne structures test frame and a scanning electron microscope. Work is also underway on further multi-million projects to provide a state-of-the-art building for students on Computing and Information Sciences courses and modern, airy studio spaces for Architecture students.