For the 25th year consecutive year, UC Santa Barbara’s chemical engineering graduate program placed among the top ten public universities in U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 Best Graduate Engineering Schools report, released April 7. The program ranked No. 8 among public universities and No. 12 overall out of 136 institutions.
 
UCSB’s materials program also continued its strong performance, ranking No. 3 among public universities and No. 6 overall out of 121 programs. Computer science rose to No. 12 among public universities and No. 27 overall out of 205 schools, while electrical and computer engineering advanced to No. 13 among public universities and No. 25 overall out of 189 programs.

Bioengineering posted one of the largest gains, climbing to No. 19 overall and No. 18 among public universities. Mechanical engineering ranked No. 17 among public universities and No. 31 overall out of 187 institutions.

All six graduate programs placed among the top 18 public universities, including two in the top eight and four among the top thirteen in their fields. Program rankings are based entirely on peer assessments submitted by chairs and faculty from across the country. 

As a whole, The Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering climbed to No. 14  among public universities and No. 28 overall out of 195 institutions. The rankings are based on peer assessments from college deans, along with institutional data and surveys of engineering deans and recruiters. 

UCSB also ranked No. 4 among public universities and No. 8 overall in the share of faculty who are members of the National Academy of Engineering, with 10.8% of its faculty holding that distinction. Nearly one-quarter of the faculty in UCSB’s Chemical Engineering Department are members of NAE, including Rachel Segalman, James B. Rawlings, Michael Doherty, and Glenn Fredrickson.

The results align with broader measures of UCSB’s research influence. In the 2025 Leiden Rankings (Open Edition), which assess impact using citation data rather than reputation surveys, UCSB ranked first among U.S. public universities and third among all U.S. institutions in engineering and the physical sciences.

That analysis examined research published between 2020 and 2023 from 2,831 universities worldwide. Among institutions with at least 1,000 publications, Leiden tracks the share of papers that rank in the top 1%, 5%, 10%, and 50% of their fields by citation impact. UCSB produced 4,920 papers in engineering and physical sciences during that period and placed first among U.S. public universities across all four tiers. The university has ranked among the top two public institutions in Leiden for fifteen consecutive years.