The high salaries drawn down by mining consultants worldwide has local universities, colleges and engineering schools scrambling to offer degrees and courses geared towards aspirants in the mining industry. But as undergraduate or graduate student pursuing a mining consultant career, it’s important to choose an educational institution that will arm you with both the hard skills and soft skills you’ll need to land high paying mining jobs. Employers will be looking for candidates who can solve equations, exercise sound engineering judgment and put their hard earned skills, knowledge and experience to applicable use. To gain these skills, you may wish to attend one of these top mining schools, according to EduMine:

Top Three Mining Schools in the World

Camborne School of Mines

Founded in 1888, the Camborne School of Mines (CSM) remains one of the most prestigious mining schools in the world. The CSM is part of the University of Exeter’s School of Geography, Archaeology and Earth Resources and is located in Cornwall, U.K. While originally renowned for its research and teaching related to mining and minerals engineering, the Camborne School of Mines now offers programs in renewable energy and geology as well.

Colorado School of Mines

The Colorado School of Mines is one of the top U.S. public research universities devoted to applied science and engineering. The school boasts the highest admissions standards of any public university. The student body is small—only about 4,500 each year—and the student to faculty ratio is about 14 to 1. This school was founded in 1874.

Western Australian School

The Curtin University Western Australian School of Mines (WASM) has held a sterling international reputation for over a hundred years. The school offers programs in metallurgical engineering and extractive metallurgy, mining engineering, spatial sciences and exploration geophysics.

Other Top Schools

Other schools worth mentioning include Pennsylvania State University in the U.S., the Indian Institute of Technology and McGill University in Canada.

Note that online universities and community colleges aren’t featured in this lineup. That’s because careers in mining require intense education in hard sciences with the guidance of qualified faculty. While you may see programs that offer distance learning or other convenient education options, such as three day weekend course in mining, these courses aren’t typically geared towards aspiring engineers, geologists, hydrologists, metallurgists and environmentalists interested in kickstarting a career as a mining consultant. Online mining degrees are better suited to professionals who may already be involved in the financial side of mining takeovers and investment. These smaller mining mini-degrees from less prominent universities may be more useful for those who need a crash course on the subject, but may not be working directly in the field or on a team of engineers developing a mining project.