What are the best biomedical engineering universities in Europe?
There are different parameters that I considered before selecting my pick of best biomedical universities in Europe. These include : Research Facility (Budget and Infrastructure) Graduate Employability Reputation of the university Citations per faculty International outlook Industry-Academia Collaborations For me teacher: student ratio, male: female ratio and cost of attendance are not important while selecting the best ones; although due to the high cost of attendance, I am not going to attend Imperial College. One may also take into account the proximity to the industries as it plays a crucial role in securing internships and looking for jobs. However, I am not including this factor while selecting my list of top 10 universities. Before I answer this question, I would like to mention that I had received admission offers from Imperial College London, KU Leuven, Paris Tech, University of Glasgow and the University of Leeds in 2018 to pursue a Master's in Biomedical/Medical Engineering. However, I joined the CEMACUBE Joint Masters program at RWTH Aachen, Germany and Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. This is just to add credibility to the answer Read: CEMACUBE Joint Masters Program in Biomedical Engineering Here is my pick of top 10. 1.Imperial College London, UK Undoubtedly this is the best place in Europe where you would like to pursue your Biomedical/Bioengineering degree. I have got admit for the Master of Research program and I am supposed to work in the Centre of Blast Injury. Almost half of the student community over here is international and the research over here is at par with some top US universities like UC Berkeley, Duke and Georgia Institute of Technology. I consider it to be in the top 10 universities in the world for Biomedical Engineering. Its interesting to note that it ranks #8 in Mechanical Engineering, #11 for Life Science and Medicine and #29 for employer reputation in the QS World University ranking. 2. ETH Zurich, Switzerland 3. EPFL, Switzerland This is the only European university that rejected my application. Well, I didnt apply to ETH. Trust me, this university is at par with Harvard and MIT and maybe better when it comes to neuroscience. The low tuition fee makes it super affordable. The international student community is extremely diverse. However, its very tough to get into, at least it was tough for me. I wish I had received admit from this university. 4. University of Cambridge, UK This is one of the few universities that clearly demarcates its course structure and avoids the confusion centering around Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering. You have the option to pursue a Master in Biological Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, or Healthcare Engineering. The biological engineering research group delves into fundamental aspects of cell and tissue engineering like embryo development, tissue deformation, and cancer cell mobility. The other two fields are more into applied research like medical imaging and medical product development. 5. KU Leuven, Belgium This is one of the most research-intensive and the most innovative university in Europe. The citations per faculty and the research in this university is at par with any top 11-30 universities in the world offering a Biomedical Engineering program like the University of Texas Austin, Wisconsin Madison and the University of Pittsburgh. The engineering program ranks in #5070 and it ranks #5060 for its life science and medical program. Overall, it ranks #47 in Times Higher Education ranking. Further, the low tuition fee makes it affordable. The best thing about KU Leuven is its industry-academia collaborations. Its biomechanics institute has collaboration with Materialise which is one of the top biotech companies dealing with 3D printing and the software Materialise MIMICS. Further, its proximity to the MedTech industries in Leuven and Brussels makes it an ideal choice to study. However, I would rank it low in International Outlook as international students comprise just 15% of its total student body, unlike the previous 4 universities I mentioned above. 6. University of Groningen, Netherlands The University of Groningen has excellent research opportunities in medical device development, surgical robotics, and biomaterials research. The university offers an excellent atmosphere for MedTech entrepreneurship. In fact, there are several life sciences spinoffs from this university like PulmoTech and EV Biotech. Here is my blog post on 5 reasons to undertake Biomedical Engineering at the University of Groningen, giving you more insight. Read: 5 Reasons to pursue Biomedical Engineering at the University of Groningen 7. RWTH Aachen, Germany This is one of the top German Excellent universities to pursue engineering. The Mechanical Engineering faculty ranks #23 in the QS World Ranking 2018. It has a research center called Helmholtz Institute Biomedical Engineering which is a great place to pursue research in artificial organs and implants. RWTH has got an employer reputation at par with ETH, EPFL, and Imperial. A degree from this university clearly stands out in the job market. 8. Trinity College Dublin, Ireland Ireland houses 7 of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies of the world. In the last decade, the Irish government is consistently making an endeavor to make Dublin and its surrounding area a biotech hub. Currently, there are over 400 biotech sector companies in Ireland with more in line. Trinity College runs a specific program in Tissue Engineering and it has consistently ranked in top 100 universities of the world. 9. KTH Royal, Sweden KTH is famous for its medicine school. The engineering program is not far behind and since biomedical engineering is an amalgam of these two streams, no doubt KTH is an ideal university to study. 10. University of Sheffield, UK This university is pioneering in offering a postgraduate course in Computational Medicine. It spends a large amount of its research budget on bioengineering. The cost of attendance is not as high as Imperial and you should definitely consider it for the diversity of its courses. I was in a dilemma when I was searching for biomedical engineering programs in Europe for my postgraduate study. I couldnt find any world ranking or European ranking of universities for Biomedical Engineering. Only the Shanghai World University rankings provide a subject ranking for biomedical engineering. However, I doubt its standings as it places Chinese Universities ahead of John Hopkins University in the USA, which is something difficult on my part to assimilate. So, I decided to evaluate the parameters myself and came to my conclusion. I hope it was useful for you.