The QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025 provides an overview of leading institutions to pursue petroleum engineering degrees. Despite global efforts to move toward cleaner energy, it remains a critical role for petroleum engineers to play in energy production and engineering innovation. For the 2025 rankings, nearly 200 universities offered their best programs, with the top players listed from the US, Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia, the UK, the UAE, Türkiye, and Brazil. The rankings captured programs from over 50 countries, here is the list of over 60 such institutions along with their location, Academic score, AR(Academic rank), Employer score and ER(Employer rank) to pursue petroleum engineering.
| 2025 | Institution | Country / Territory | Academic | AR rank | Employer | ER Rank |
| 1 | University of Texas at Austin | United States of America | 100.0 | 1 | 96.6 | 2 |
| 2 | University of Alberta | Canada | 94.9 | 2 | 90.3 | 3 |
| 3 | Texas A&M University | United States of America | 91.4 | 3 | 87.9 | 5 |
| 4 | The University of Adelaide | Australia | 87.7 | 4 | 80.4 | 10 |
| 5 | King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals | Saudi Arabia | 76.6 | 14 | 100.0 | 1 |
| 6 | Imperial College London | United Kingdom | 84.6 | 5 | 82.3 | 8 |
| 7 | Khalifa University of Science and Technology | United Arab Emirates | 84.4 | 6 | 75.9 | 15 |
| 8 | Middle East Technical University | Türkiye | 78.4 | 8 | 88.8 | 4 |
| 9 | Universidade de São Paulo | Brazil | 76.5 | 15 | 84.4 | 6 |
| =10 | The University of Manchester | United Kingdom | 75.9 | 16 | 74.9 | 19 |
| =10 | The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) | Australia | 72.5 | 23 | 75.3 | 18 |
| 12 | The University of Queensland | Australia | 78.1 | 9 | 68.3 | 32= |
| 13 | University of Surrey | United Kingdom | 72.9 | 22 | 78.0 | 14 |
| 14 | Kyoto University | Japan | 77.3 | 12 | 72.8 | 24 |
| 15 | Heriot-Watt University | United Kingdom | 74.0 | 17 | 79.0 | 11 |
| 16 | Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) | Malaysia | 77.6 | 11 | 73.3 | 23 |
| 17 | Politecnico di Torino | Italy | 69.7 | 28 | 82.7 | 7 |
| 18 | King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) | Saudi Arabia | 73.9 | 18= | 62.3 | 51+ |
| 19 | KIT, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology | Germany | 73.1 | 21 | 69.8 | 29 |
| 20 | Sharif University of Technology | Iran (Islamic Republic of) | 77.8 | 10 | 64.6 | 43 |
| 21 | University of Copenhagen | Denmark | 80.4 | 7 | 58.4 | 51+ |
| =22 | University of Leeds | United Kingdom | 71.8 | 25 | 63.1 | 50 |
| =22 | University of Tehran | Iran (Islamic Republic of) | 77.1 | 13 | 55.1 | 51+ |
| 24 | Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) | Argentina | 73.8 | 20 | 71.8 | 27 |
| 25 | Sultan Qaboos University | Oman | 68.7 | 30 | 73.8 | 20 |
| 26 | Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) | Mexico | 72.3 | 24 | 71.6 | 28 |
| 27 | Pennsylvania State University | United States of America | 68.4 | 31 | 65.8 | 39 |
| 28 | Colorado School of Mines | United States of America | 70.7 | 26 | 64.4 | 44 |
| 29 | University of Calgary | Canada | 63.9 | 41 | 72.0 | 26 |
| 30 | National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University | Russian Federation | 67.7 | 32 | 78.8 | 12 |
| 31 | Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) | India | 60.6 | 51+ | 81.1 | 9 |
| 32 | Universidad Nacional de Colombia | Colombia | 67.5 | 33 | 75.5 | 17 |
| 33 | King Saud University | Saudi Arabia | 63.1 | 44 | 65.1 | 41 |
| 34 | University College Dublin | Ireland | 63.4 | 42 | 63.7 | 48 |
| 35 | Kazan (Volga region) Federal University | Russian Federation | 73.9 | 18= | 69.4 | 31 |
| 36 | University of Oslo | Norway | 70.5 | 27 | 51.8 | 51+ |
| 37 | University of Southern California | United States of America | 60.4 | 51+ | 65.9 | 38 |
| 38 | Cairo University | Egypt | 64.5 | 40 | 64.2 | 45 |
| 39 | Aalborg University | Denmark | 66.3 | 34= | 47.8 | 51+ |
| =40 | Istanbul Technical University | Türkiye | 63.0 | 45 | 67.1 | 36= |
| =40 | RUDN University | Russian Federation | 66.3 | 34= | 65.0 | 42 |
| =40 | Universidad Industrial de Santander - UIS | Colombia | 62.8 | 46= | 78.5 | 13 |
| =40 | Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro | Brazil | 62.8 | 46= | 69.5 | 30 |
| =40 | University of Liverpool | United Kingdom | 65.6 | 37 | 56.7 | 51+ |
| 45 | Saint Petersburg State University | Russian Federation | 63.2 | 43 | 73.7 | 21= |
| 46 | Universiti Teknologi Malaysia | Malaysia | 64.9 | 38 | 57.3 | 51+ |
| 47 | Norwegian University of Science And Technology | Norway | 66.0 | 36 | 56.5 | 51+ |
| 48 | Curtin University | Australia | 60.2 | 51+ | 56.0 | 51+ |
| =49 | Chulalongkorn University | Thailand | 62.6 | 49 | 60.4 | 51+ |
| =49 | Texas Tech University | United States of America | 56.6 | 51+ | 72.4 | 25 |
| 51-100 | Alexandria University | Egypt | 56.7 | 51+ | 58.6 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | American University of Beirut (AUB) | Lebanon | 58.7 | 51+ | 68.2 | 34 |
| 51-100 | Amirkabir University of Technology | Iran (Islamic Republic of) | 68.8 | 29 | 48.3 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport | Egypt | 45.6 | 51+ | 57.7 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) | Indonesia | 50.1 | 51+ | 54.1 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | Beirut Arab University | Lebanon | 48.8 | 51+ | 61.5 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | Brunel University London | United Kingdom | 46.2 | 51+ | 54.8 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | Case Western Reserve University | United States of America | 52.4 | 51+ | 51.8 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | China University of Geosciences | China (Mainland) | 55.5 | 51+ | 29.9 | 51+ |
| 51-100 | China University of Petroleum | China (Mainland) | 62.0 | 51+ | 30.0 | 51+ |
Pursuing a petroleum engineering program in 2025, will form your base in a discipline that has global relevance and potential. The above-mentioned universities with the highest rankings are represented around the world on multiple continents.
