The 20 best mining schools in the world

Frik Els | March 9, 2017 | 11:35 pm Base Metals Battery Metals Education Energy Precious Metals Africa Asia Australia Canada China Latin America Coal Diamond Gold Iron Ore Nickel Rare Earth Uranium 
The 20 best mining engineering schools in the world

The QS World University Rankings by Subject released this week lists the world’s top universities in 46 individual subject areas.

The rankings are based on data for academic reputation from a survey of more than 70,000 academics, research citations per paper and its so called H-index which measures the impact of a scholar or scientist.

The engineering – mining and mineral field has 51 entries and the top tier is dominated by US, Australian and Canadian universities

What sets QS apart from similar rankings of educational institutions is a fourth component of the ranking – employer reputation. A survey of over 40,000 employers ranks schools according to the quality of recruits.

The mineral and mining engineering ranking was introduced for the first time ever last year.

The QS engineering – mining and mineral field has 51 entries and the top tier is dominated by US, Australian and Canadian universities. Top rated Colorado School of Mines, established in 1859, is placed well above the competition with a score of above 90.

Established in 1986 Curtin University in Western Australia’s mining faculty shot up the rankings from 19th to second place ahead of Queensland University which also moved up 7 places in the rankings.

Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals fall just outside the top 20 while South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand is in joint 22nd after falling 4 places.

Indian School of Mines (ISM) University, Dhanbad ranks 24th while the top ranked Chinese school, the University of Mining and Technology based in Xuzhou is placed 27th.

The 20 best mining engineering schools in the world

Source: QS

Click here for detailed rankings.

 

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38 Comments

  • Bryan

    That’s a joke. Look at where the engineers at operating mines actually came from. In the Western US, it sure isn’t that list.

  • Korkes m

    How come Laurentian University is not listed, it is located in the heart of Sudbury mining complex with 4 major research organizations in mining, geology, and environmental science, even the Ontario Geological survey is on the campus of the university, It has won the most mining games competition in Canada

    • LAMB

      Don’t forget the underground “COLLIDER” facility in Sudbury – what other place can claim so much SCIENCE in one place????

  • JJ

    Who made this list up, academics ? If CSM is the top school, how come their Mining Department is so poorly rated among mining companies ?

    • Bryan

      I’d bet it was a Royal Academy grad. That’s why they’re at the top, and Montana School of Mines, Mackay, Camborne, and the other schools whose engineers are running the world’s mines are absent from this list.

    • Harry McNicholas

      JJ. Where in the hell did you come up with that idea? CSM is rated at the top by every mining company.

  • Wallace Samiselo

    Even my own Royal School of mines at Imperial, London cannot be seen and yet it has produced top class miners and academics! The list is definitely not correct!

  • Roger Turner

    Where has the Royal School of Mine, Imperial Collage London and the Camborne School of Mines, Exeter University UK gone? Not mentioned anywhere.

  • Fernanda

    Curtin University?!?! ?

  • Stephen Schultz

    Camborne: best history, fresh air and beer (at least).

  • PhDMiningEngineering

    What a load of crock! It just goes to show who pays for their ratings… Camborne School of Mines – University of Exeter and Goodman School of Mines/Harquail School of Earth Sciences – Laurentian University should be on this list and near, if not at, the bloody top!

    • John Guy Taylor

      Absolutely No 1 definitely

  • Stuart MacGowan

    None of these have ever won the Bottle Match though, so they can’t be that good.

  • JamesMiner

    South Africa has the deepest gold mines in the world and they have not been designed from universities abroad . . . . . . . .

    • Leon Coetzer

      Yes James, they tried and failed!! South Deep? Anyway I will not stir, but I am an exec and employer and have not seen notable students from these places. Some of the ones mentioned by the discussion though are key and elite.

      • SnakePlissken

        Did you ever hire anyone from Michigan Tech, and, how bad were they? 🙂

  • Tiffany Lyche

    Missouri University of Science and Technology… The original School of Mines!
    This school started out as solely a mining university. How can a program with a masters and PhD program in mining and explosives engineering have been missed? Flawed matrices??? We train and certify some of the top secret service, DOJ, and BATFE men and women in this country, yet MS&T did not make the cut? CRAZY! Also note that the image used for this informative list has come from the winner’s social media site, peculiar. The only reason CSM is ranked number 1 is because it is the Harvard of mining schools. A name brand education at a brand name price.

    • Jim H

      hmmm DOJ? BATFE? what do they mine? 🙂 Maybe that’s the problem. I’m an mining engineering alumni and I agree that MS&T should be top ranked, Heck Michigan Tech and U of I mining programs aren’t even ABET accredited how did they make any list? But to the point, MS&T has lost (a mining) focus. As you said it started as exclusively mining. But in recent years the University management has down rated mining to a program, it’s just part of the Mining and Nuclear department. The University is slow to back fill teaching and leadership positions, they’ve clearly lost interest. The program has been further diluted by an over emphasis in explosives. To not be in the top 10 is bad enough, to not even make the list should be a huge wake up to the University, if they care.

  • Chris Pritchard

    Penn State barely has a mining program, and concentrates on the dying coal industry. They have essentially been absent from professional activity the last 10 years.

  • Leon Coetzer

    What can I say? 25 years of working internationally as a mining pro. I am from Wits in SA but lets just say that I do not even recognise some of these, okay most of them, so I guess it was designed to draw student dollars to their empty classrooms. There are some classy outfits in the world. I know that UMAT in Ghana is better than most of these….

  • Brent

    and who is Laurentian U ? never heard of them are they in “timbuttwo”?

    • LAMB

      Brent – they are in the MINING CAPITAL of CANADA – SUDBURY, Ontario – top notch.

  • LAMB

    Also missing DALHOUSIE which has a strong MINING ENGINEERING course – got my degrees (Masters + Bachelors) at NSTC, now part of DALHOUSIE

  • Llee Chapman

    Unbelievable that Mackay School of mines in Reno and Montana Tech are not on the list…..hmmmm

  • Llee Chapman

    And hey, I didn’t attend either Mackay or Butte, just hired hundreds of the greatest miners from those schools?

  • Markimoo

    If Mcgill is 6th it must have improved tremendously in the last 5 years! Of course when it comes to school ranking reputation does not always means quality. Mcgill is a notorious school but its mine engineering program has become pretty bad.

  • S gaddy

    Pure academic opinion. Why not use real data?

  • RockHound

    Bahahaha….what a bunch of BS!

  • Scott Jones

    University of Melbourne does not have a mining degree

  • Alastair Lings

    I think the only place in the UK where you can study mining is the Camborne School of Mines, part of the University of Exeter. The University of Derby offers courses related to quarrying. There are NO mining departments at Aberdeen, Birmingham, Liverpool and Southampton Universities.

  • SnakePlissken

    Michigan School of Mines, aka, Michigan Technological University, sent its Nursing Program to another college in 1979, so, it became a ‘School Without Women’, and has been in constant decline ever since. Just sayin.

  • Half Japanese - Half Jamaican

    Laurentian not even in the top 50 lol!

  • S E

    I’m surprised MIT didn’t make the list. They have a world class program in Materials Science, courses on Metallurgy, and a new program on sustainability – MIT Metals & Minerals for the Environment.

  • ThaOracle

    What if I were to tell you ………….. FAKE NEWS!!! – the Frik-king fix is in

  • kanter

    Heated debate… Rankings of schools and universities is always a disaster and the source of fights.

    Criteria used for ranking have nothing to do with quality of trained students. Academic publications have never made a training better. Research output has nothing to do with quality of training.

    Employers survey is flawed as employers never have a representative sample of students to rank the quality of their training.

    Do not get into this debate. It is sterile. Those rankings are only of interest to people who do not understand a thing to the industry. Mostly HR, and non technical management.

  • Carlos Correa

    Desde luego UNAM-México

  • A real mining engineer

    I wonder if the 40,000 employers interviewed work or have ever worked in a mine?
    Every miner knows that “At the bottom of every mine in the world, you will find a cuzzin Jack.” Cornish miner. Camborne, today, tomorrow and forever.

  • Abi

    I am from India and I am from civil engineering too can u please suggest me which group best in mining and university

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