Our rankings

• Overall we are ranked 42nd in the UK and 6th in Scotland.
• We placed 34th in the UK and 5th in Scotland for graduate outcomes, and 5th in the UK and 1st in Scotland for amount spent on facilities.
• We are ranked top 10 in the UK for Building (6th) and Town & Country Planning (10th).
• We are ranked top 20 in the UK for Chemical Engineering (15th) and Mathematics (10th).
• We are ranked 3rd in Scotland for Marketing.

View the Complete University Guide league table 2025

• Climbed 13 places, reaching 51st in the UK, and moved up four places to secure 8th position in Scotland.
• 3rd in the UK and 1st in Scotland for Building
• Top 10 in the UK for Chemical Engineering, Mathematics and Town & Country Planning
• Top 5 in Scotland for Aeronautical Manufacturing, Chemistry, Economics, Engineering, Physics & Astronomy and Psychology

• 1st in the UK for Economics and Electrical & Electronic Engineering
• 2nd in the UK for Chemical, Process and Energy Engineering
• 6th in the UK and 1st in Scotland for Artificial Intelligence
• 12th in the UK for Graduate Salaries

The QS World University Rankings table has been published annually since 2004. It features more than 1,000 universities with each measured on a variety of factors including academic reputation and employer reputation.

• Heriot-Watt is ranked 256th in the world, 32nd in UK and 5th in Scotland.

View the QS World University Rankings 2025.

• We are top 30 in the UK for Engineering & Technology, top 40 in the UK for Natural Sciences, and top 50 in the UK for Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences.
• We are ranked 15th in the world and 2nd in the UK for Petroleum Engineering.
• We are ranked top 200 in the world for 4 subjects: Civil and Structural Engineering,Hospitality and Leisure Management, Architecture and Built Environment, Petroleum Engineering.

View the QS Top University Rankings by Subject 2025.

• 9th in the UK and 2nd in Scotland for Economics
• 1st in Scotland for Construction, Surveying & Planning
• Top 3 in Scotland for Chemical Engineering, Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Fashion & Textiles, Interior Design, Languages & Linguistics, and Physics.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings use 13 performance indicators to examine universities across all of their core missions – teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

• We are ranked joint 45th in the UK and joint 7th in Scotland.
• 41st in the world for International Outlook.
• 5th in the UK and 1st in Scotland for Industry.

View the Times Higher Education World University Rankings

The National Student Survey (NSS) is a survey which gathers honest feedback from final year undergraduates studying full-time.

• We are 1st in the UK for Chemical, Process and Energy Engineering, 2nd in the UK for Statistics, and 5th in the UK for Economics based on average score across all questions.
• We are 1st in Scotland for Economics, and Statistics, based on overall satisfaction.
• We are 1st in Scotland for Chemistry based on average score across all questions.
• We are 2nd in Scotland for Physics, Management Studies, and Building based on overall satisfaction.
• We are 3rd in Scotland for Mechanical Engineering, and Mathematics, based on overall satisfaction.

Source: NSS 2024 responses from full-time students. All NSS data is included on the course pages of the Discover Uni website.

REF 2021 classed 86.8% of our research and 88.6% of our research outputs as 'world-leading' (4*) and 'internationally excellent' (3*). Heriot-Watt University was recognised for world-leading research in Physics; Mathematical Sciences; Engineering; and Architecture, Built Environment and Planning.

Find out more about our REF 2021 results.

THE's Golden Age University Rankings measures universities established between 1945 and 1967 for their teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry income.

• Heriot-Watt is ranked 47th out of 308 institutions.

View the Times Higher Education Golden Age Rankings

We are ranked in the top 800 in the world (ranked 701-800) and in the UK top 55 (ranked 46-54) by the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2020.

The Times / Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019 ranked Heriot-Watt joint 17th in the UK and 1st in Scotland for graduate salaries 6 months after graduation.

95% of Heriot-Watt students are in employment or further study within six months of graduation