Centrale Nantes Rankings

Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020

Centrale Nantes maintained its 2019 place in the 401-500 grouping of the world’s top universities in the prestigious Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020. On industry income Centrale Nantes is ranked 93rd globally.

Out of the 1396 institutions ranked worldwide by Times Higher Education, Centrale Nantes is positioned in the top 500 globally, 14th in France and in the top five French engineering schools.

To join this elite circle, five major performance indicators are used evaluate institutions: teaching, research, citations, industry income and international outlook. Centrale Nantes performs particularly well on two of the indicators:

  • Industry income: second French institution and 93 rd globally
  • International outlook: second French institution

Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2020


Engineering and Technology

Out of only 1,008 establishments ranked worldwide for Engineering & Technology, Centrale Nantes confirms its standing in the top 200 for 2020. This ranking places the school in the top 60 in Europe, the top 5 in France and number one outside the capital.




Computer Science

Centrale Nantes is also ranked in the THE Computer Science ranking in 2020 in the 301-400 grouping of ​​the best universities worldwide and in 10th place in France.

Times Higher Education Young University Rankings 2019

Centrale Nantes is one of the world's best universities aged 50 or younger, according to the criteria of the Times Higher Education Young Universities Rankings. The school is ranked 69th out of 351 globally and 10th in France.

The ranking assesses research-intensive institutions across all their core missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. It is based on the same performance indicators as the flagship ranking THE World University Rankings, but the weightings are adjusted to give less weight to reputation. Centrale Nantes performed particularly well on international outlook and industry income.

Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings 2019

Centrale Nantes is ranked in the top 200 - and joint second in France - of the world’s best universities for social and economic impact in the first edition of the THE University Impact Rankings.

The University Impact Rankings measure global universities’ success in delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Centrale Nantes performed particularly well on three of these goals:

  • SDG 8 - Decent work and economic growth (10th)
  • SDG 9 - Industry, innovation and infrastructure (84th)
  • SDG 13 - Climate action (top 200)

Shanghai Ranking 2019

Centrale Nantes joined the famous Shanghai Ranking in 2019, which has listed the world's best universities every year since 2003. The school features in the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects - Mechanical Engineering, in which it is ranked between the 201st and 300th place.

This global ranking assesses the performance of institutions based primarily on research and publications in specialized scientific journals as opposed to the quality of education.  Six criteria are measured:

  • the number of Nobel Prizes and Fields medals awarded to alumni and researchers,
  • the number of the most cited researchers in their disciplines,
  • the number of articles published in Nature and in Science,
  • the number of articles in the Science Citation Index - Expanded and in the Social Sciences Citation Index,
  • academic performance in terms of the institution's size.
More than 1,200 universities are referenced each year with the top 500 published.

U-MultiRank 2019


Centrale Nantes in the top 25 global performing universities for student mobility since 2016

For the fourth year in a row, Centrale Nantes stands out in the U-Multirank 2019 ranking for international orientation and ranks 6th in the list of the 25 world’s best performing institutions for student mobility (Global Top performer in student mobility).

U-Multirank is the first world ranking for higher education establishments with performance assessed on an A to E scale according to a plethora of (30) indicators and five categories: teaching and learning, research, knowledge transfer, international orientation and regional engagement. The ranking includes more than 1700 higher education establishments worldwide, including 62 in France. Centrale Nantes scored particularly well on:

  • International opening: Five As on six indicators
  • Knowledge transfer: Five As on nine indicators
  • Research: Four As of ten indicators

L'Etudiant 2019

Centrale Nantes in joint 4th place in the L'Etudiant 2019 rankings for French Engineering Schools

The Etudiant ranking for French engineering schools, which lists 174 establishments, measures over fifty indicators in four major areas of development: (1) academic excellence, (2) international openness (3) links with industry (4) diversity of backgrounds. Excellent performance areas 2 and 3 has boosted Centrale Nantes up to joint fourth place in the 2019 ranking.

L'Usine Nouvelle 2019


Centrale Nantes ranked fifth French Engineering School in 2019 by L'Usine Nouvelle

The Usine Nouvelle ranking uses four main evaluation criteria, themselves defined according to several indicators, as follows:

  • graduate employment
  • international openness
  • research
  • entrepreneurship
Centrale Nantes climbed from 15th to 5th place in the overall ranking of French engineering schools since the 2018 rankings. This excellent performance is notably due to the score obtained for the development of entrepreneurship, for which Centrale Nantes is positioned as the third best establishment in France.
Published on November 14, 2016 Updated on October 17, 2019