ITU Ranks Türkiye’s First, Europe’s 60th Engineering University in the EngiRank 2025!

According to the EngiRank 2025 results, ITU ranked first among Turkish universities, becoming the leading engineering university in Türkiye! Our university, which ranks 60th in the overall ranking in Europe, is in the top 50 in Europe in 4 of the 7 engineering subjects in which it was evaluated!

Istanbul Technical University (ITU) achieved significant success in the data-driven EngiRank (European Ranking of Engineering Programs) 2025, which evaluates engineering universities in Europe. In the overall ranking of EngiRank 2025, ITU ranked first among the 16 universities from Türkiye and 60th among the 239 universities in Europe.

Outstanding success in environmental, civil, and materials engineering

Considering the engineering subjects in which it was evaluated on a European scale, ITU stood out with its superior performance in Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Materials Engineering: Our university ranked 17th in Environmental Engineering, 30th in Civil Engineering, and 32nd in Materials Engineering. These rankings in these three subjects highlight ITU’s competitive profile among technical universities in Europe.

Besides Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Materials Engineering, our university achieved a remarkable success in other engineering subjects evaluated according to the EngiRank 2025 results. ITU’s rankings of 41st in Medical Engineering, 51st in Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering, 51st in Chemical Engineering, and 55th in Mechanical Engineering indicate a balanced interdisciplinary performance.

ITU ranked 31st in Multidisciplinarity and 44th in Contribution to SDG.

In EngiRank 2025, ITU made its members proud with its balance between research and innovation, its interdisciplinary profile, and its high rankings in Europe in Environmental, Civil, and Materials Engineering. It is anticipated that ITU will further improve its position in the rankings in the coming years through its efforts focused on innovation and EU projects.

The significance of the EngiRank result for CESAER

CESAER, the representative body of leading engineering and technology universities in Europe, has recently begun to consider the EngiRank Ranking an important indicator for engineering-focused higher education policies. ITU stands out as the only university from Türkiye that is a member of CESAER.

CESAER monitors the research, innovation, and sustainability performance of technical universities across Europe, and evaluates EngiRank data as a complementary resource. It views this ranking as an objective measure of institutional capacity in engineering.

This situation reveals that Istanbul Technical University’s strong position in EngiRank is not just a ranking success, but also an indicator of excellence recognized at the CESAER level within the European engineering ecosystem.

Awards ceremony in Brussels

The EngiRank results were announced along with an awards ceremony during the seminar titled “Engineering for Security: Universities and Industry in Service of Defense,” organized in Brussels on December 1, 2025, in cooperation with the Perspektywy Education Foundation, the NCBR Brussels Office, and Business & Science Poland. Vice-Rector Prof. Dr. Lütfiye Durak Ata represented ITU at the event, which CESAER Secretary General Mattias Björnmalm also attended. Our Vice-Rector participated as a panellist in the panel titled “Educating Engineers for and in Cooperation with the Defence Industry.”

The seminar offered participants an opportunity to reflect on how technical universities can contribute to Europe’s strategic priorities and to the development of defence capabilities in close cooperation with industry. The discussions were held under three thematic headings: How to involve technical universities in European defense; technologies usable for both military and civil purposes; and the education of engineers equipped with the digital and analytical skills required for the modern defense industry.

It was emphasized that Europe needs to fully utilize its scientific and engineering potential to strengthen its defense capabilities. It was confirmed that technical universities form the basis for the skills, research, and innovation essential to Europe’s security and resilience.

Methodology of the EngiRank

EngiRank is a public-interest ranking that holistically measures the European engineering ecosystem. It has an innovative direction, combining regional rankings with “subject-based” rankings.

The ranking focuses on criteria and indicators related to the relationships between academia and industry. Through the criteria of Research, Innovation, EU projects, patent generation, sustainability, and international engagement, it considers not only the academic success of universities but also their innovation capacity and contribution to sustainability.

Universities from Türkiye were included in EngiRank 2025 for the first time this year. Thus, the ranking featured Türkiye alongside the EU countries, Western Balkan countries, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, and Ukraine. Universities where at least 30% of their publications were in the field of engineering were evaluated. All data is collected from external sources such as Scopus, PATSTAT, CORDIS, and EPO, and universities are asked to verify the data.

Institutional ranking criteria

The institutional ranking is based on five criteria. The two most important criteria by weight are Research (28%) and Innovation (25%), which together account for 53% of the ranking. Internationalization has a weight of 16%. Multidisciplinarity, which links the institutional ranking to the subject rankings, weights 21%. Contribution to SDG (Sustainable Development Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) weights 10%.

The criterion related to SDG 9 acknowledges the institution’s efforts towards progress within its framework.

Due to EngiRank’s objectives and its precisely defined area of education and research, the ranking focuses on criteria and indicators related to the relationships between academia and industry. The five indicators aim to capture and highlight universities that not only conduct research but also do so in cooperation with industry and can effectively apply the results in high-tech companies.

Subject-based ranking criteria

The subject-based ranking is based on three criteria: Research (64%), Innovation (26%), and Teaching Quality (10%).

The Sustainable Development Goals also contribute to the subjects alongside the overall institutional ranking: SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) contributes 5% to Environmental Engineering, SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) contributes 5% to Biomedical Engineering, and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) contributes 5% to Civil Engineering. Due to the 5% contribution of the Sustainable Development Goals in these three engineering subjects, Research has a weighting of 60% and Innovation has a weighting of 24%.

Engineering program accreditations awarded by ENAEE (European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education) are the sole indicator in the quality of teaching criterion for the subject ranking and have been assigned a significant weight of 10%. ITU’s Master of Science programs in Earthquake Engineering, Coastal Sciences and Engineering, and Textile Engineering were accredited in 2024 by MÜDEK, an accreditation body authorized to award the EUR-ACE® label under the umbrella of ENAEE and a signatory member of the Washington Accord, making it the first university in Türkiye to hold accreditation at the postgraduate level. These programs also received the EUR-ACE® label in early 2025, further increasing their recognition in Europe, in addition to the MÜDEK accreditation.

The Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI), one of the indicators under the research criterion, as a dynamic citation impact change index, provides an opportunity to distinguish universities that have made the most significant progress in research, both in the overall ranking and across the subjects.