North Carolina State University
#272
QS World University Rankings 2026
48.2
QS 2026 overall score
Ranking data
QS World University Rankings source#272
QS World University Rankings 2026
#311
QS World University Rankings 2025
48.2
QS 2026 overall score
Indicator-level data
Each card keeps the QS 2026 score and rank separate. A missing value is not estimated.
Academic reputation
- QS 2026 score
- 36.4
- QS 2026 rank
- #333
Employer reputation
- QS 2026 score
- 47.9
- QS 2026 rank
- #271
Faculty-student ratio
- QS 2026 score
- 12.2
- QS 2026 rank
- #801
Citations per faculty
- QS 2026 score
- 72.9
- QS 2026 rank
- #190
International faculty ratio
- QS 2026 score
- 67.5
- QS 2026 rank
- #347
International student ratio
- QS 2026 score
- 25.6
- QS 2026 rank
- #651
International student diversity
- QS 2026 score
- 31.7
- QS 2026 rank
- #594
International research network
- QS 2026 score
- 79.8
- QS 2026 rank
- #356
Employment outcomes
- QS 2026 score
- 37.7
- QS 2026 rank
- #464
Sustainability
- QS 2026 score
- 86.7
- QS 2026 rank
- #91
About North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University organizes research through collaboration and shared facilities
North Carolina State University describes research through an Office of Research and Innovation that supports research activity, creative work, collaboration, research practice, and paths from discovery toward use. The public material also points to shared core research facilities, centres, institutes, faculty clusters, and interdisciplinary initiatives. This is useful for a reader whose question may cross colleges or methods. A shared facility can provide a resource, a centre can connect people around a topic, and a faculty cluster can join expertise across areas. These structures are not evidence that every project uses the same approach. The local group still needs to show the concrete research object and method.
The official research pages mention work in sciences, engineering, mathematics, design, textiles, humanities, social sciences, and education. That variety is a reason to avoid making a comparison from a single broad word. A data question may be technical, social, or design-oriented. A materials question may connect chemistry, engineering, manufacturing, and environmental systems. Start with the question itself and look for the setting where it is defined clearly. The most useful source will say what the researchers are trying to understand or build and how they are going about it.
Research initiatives can show structure while local pages show practice
NC State's research initiatives page describes shared facilities, centres, institutes, and cross-college work. This provides a useful map for identifying possible research homes. It cannot turn a broad initiative name into a personal conclusion. A shared core facility may support many unrelated projects. An interdisciplinary initiative may be a forum, a programme, or a group of projects with different methods. Follow the public structure to the unit where the research problem is actually stated. That page can reveal whether the work uses experiments, tools, datasets, prototypes, field studies, archival sources, or another form of inquiry.
The research office also highlights discovery processes that use automated laboratory systems. This example shows how a visible technical story can point toward a method without defining the university's whole research practice. Automation may be central to one scientific setting and irrelevant to another. Treat the example as a route to check the associated group, facility, or project. The same rule applies to any public research feature. A reader can learn from the named object and method, but should not assume that a general research enterprise tells them which academic environment is most suitable for every question.
Build an NC State comparison from the point where disciplines meet
A useful North Carolina State University research note begins by identifying the part of a question that needs a home. It may be a molecular process, a material, a data system, a textile, a designed object, a public behaviour, or an educational practice. Then find the centre, college, facility, or group that addresses that object. Write down the method visible on the local page. It may involve laboratory work, computation, design, measurement, field evidence, policy analysis, or qualitative research. This short record makes it possible to compare the actual research setting rather than the scale of the institutional research structure.
Add a clear recheck point before relying on an early match. A faculty cluster may change membership, a shared facility can serve many topics, and a current story may not describe future work. NC State's public research organization pages are valuable because they show several possible pathways across disciplines. The final assessment should be made at the local level, where a reader can see the question, people, and research practice. That keeps the profile useful for discovery while avoiding claims that go beyond the current official evidence.
Institution record
- Country
- United States of America
- Region
- Americas
- Status
- Public
- QS size code
- XL
- Profile record updated
- July 24, 2026
This date shows when this profile was refreshed. It is not a source-verification date from QS or the university.
Search opportunitiesOpportunity records may use a different form of the institution's name. Confirm every listing with its original source.