Best universities for education degrees 2024

Find the best colleges for education degrees using Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings data

October 28 2020

An education degree can open the doors to working and teaching in schools as well as carrying out research into how we learn.

Times Higher Education has ranked the best universities for education degrees to help you decide on the best university for you.

Stanford University and the University of Oxford take the top spots in the ranking. The University of Hong Kong and Tsinghua University are the only universities in Asia to rank among the top 10, at number five and seven, respectively, and the University of Cambridge comes in at number six. The remainder of the top 10 is dominated by US universities.

US universities are well represented in the entire subject ranking for education, with 133 universities. A total of 218 of the universities are from Europe and 46 are from Asia.

Canada and Australia are also represented in the ranking, with 20 and 35 universities, respectively.

Times Higher Education subject rankings are based on the same 13 performance indicators used in the overall World University Rankings 2021. However, the methodology is carefully recalibrated for each subject, with the weightings adjusted to suit the individual fields. The full methodology for education can be found here.

Best universities worldwide

Best universities in Europe
Best universities in the United States
Best universities in the UK
Best universities in Australia
Best universities in Canada
Best universities in the world

Top five universities for education degrees

1. Stanford University

The Stanford University Graduate School of Education has a high reputation across the US as one of the best education schools in the country. The school provides seven master’s programmes, 21 doctoral programmes and three joint programmes. There are also undergraduate programmes for students wishing to pursue a minor in education or to take part in the honours programme.

The doctoral programmes aim to promote research in education, looking at the psychology behind how we learn as well as curriculum studies and teacher training.

The school of education is one of seven schools at the university, which also include business, law, engineering, humanities and science.

2. University of Oxford

Research at the University of Oxford’s department of education is centred around three key themes: language, cognition and development; economy, policy and society; and knowledge, pedagogy and design. Within each of these areas are several research groups and centres.

As well as research into education, the department also provides teacher training for primary and secondary teachers.

The department regularly hosts seminars and public lectures taken by nationally distinguished speakers in the field of education.

3. Harvard University

Harvard University offers 13 separate year-long master’s programmes and a number of doctoral programmes in education. The master’s programmes cover many aspects of the subject, including arts and education, higher education, international education policy, and human development and education.

The faculty includes a MacArthur Prize fellowship and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Among the faculty are experts in many wide-ranging aspects of education, including bilingual education, adult learning, economy and education, and social services and schools.

What can you do with an education degree?

4. University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley offers MA and PhD programmes across a wide range of topics in education such as the impact of race, class and gender, and how politics and policy can affect education.

Undergraduate students also have the option to take a minor in education, and it is one of the university’s most popular minor options. The university also provides courses that will prepare students for a career in teaching, from classroom teaching to district-level leadership.

5. University of Hong Kong

The Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong provides teaching in Chinese-language education and English-language education. There is also a division for mathematics and science education, speech and hearing sciences and information and technology studies.

There are seven research centres, including the centre for educational leadership, the centre for communication disorders and the centre for the advancement of Chinese-language education and research.

Universities by degree subject

Best universities for arts and humanities degrees
Best universities for engineering degrees
Best universities for medicine degrees
Best universities for computer science degrees
Best universities for social science degrees
Best universities for life sciences degrees
Best universities for physics, chemistry and maths degrees
Best universities for business degrees
Best universities for law degrees
Best universities for psychology degrees

Top 200 universities for education degrees 2021

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2021 profile

Education Rank 2021	Education Rank 2020	University	Country/region
1	1	Stanford University	United States
2	4	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
3	2	Harvard University	United States
4	5	University of California, Berkeley	United States
5	3	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
6	7	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
7	NR	Tsinghua University	China
8	8	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
9	10	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
10	11	Vanderbilt University	United States
11	13	Peking University	China
12	12	Michigan State University	United States
13	6	University of Pennsylvania	United States
14	9	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
15	14	University of Toronto	Canada
16	=16	UCL	United Kingdom
17	25	University of Melbourne	Australia
18	=16	Columbia University	United States
19	=19	University of Texas at Austin	United States
20	=23	National Taiwan Normal University	Taiwan
21	15	University of Washington	United States
22	=19	University of British Columbia	Canada
23	18	King’s College London	United Kingdom
24	31	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
25	28	University of Southern California	United States
26	22	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
27	=23	Maastricht University	Netherlands
28	=36	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
29	=44	Beijing Normal University	China
30	80	Monash University	Australia
31	=57	Deakin University	Australia
32	21	New York University	United States
33	43	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
34	26	Johns Hopkins University	United States
35	32	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
36	29	National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Taiwan Tech)	Taiwan
37	39	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
38	NR	University of Twente	Netherlands
39	=36	Boston College	United States
40	30	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
41	34	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
42	=46	The University of Queensland	Australia
43	48	McGill University	Canada
44	=44	KU Leuven	Belgium
45	40	Indiana University	United States
46	=46	University of Auckland	New Zealand
47	38	University of Georgia	United States
48	33	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
=49	50	Ghent University	Belgium
51	=57	University of Sydney	Australia
52	60	University of Helsinki	Finland
53	27	University of Minnesota	United States
54	76	University of California, Irvine	United States
55	=86	Zhejiang University	China
56	49	The University of Tokyo	Japan
57	56	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
58	35	Utrecht University	Netherlands
59	100	East China Normal University	China
59	41	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
60	59	Korea University	South Korea
61	79	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
62	101–125	La Trobe University	Australia
63	63	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
64	93	Free University of Berlin	Germany
65	=61	UNSW Sydney	Australia
66	66	University of Oslo	Norway
67	101–125	University of Jyväskylä	Finland
68	65	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
=69	55	Florida State University	United States
=69	101–125	Macquarie University	Australia
71	54	LMU Munich	Germany
72	=81	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
73	NR	University of California, Davis	United States
74	201–250	University of Montreal	Canada
=75	=71	Brown University	United States
=75	=98	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
77	=74	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
78	126–150	University of Florida	United States
79	151–175	Victoria University of Wellington	New Zealand
80	64	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
=81	67	University of Hamburg	Germany
=81	91	University of Tübingen	Germany
83	52	University of California, Santa Barbara	United States
84	51	University of California, San Diego	United States
85	69	Kyoto University	Japan
86	101–125	University of Connecticut	United States
87	85	Aarhus University	Denmark
88	101–125	University of São Paulo	Brazil
89	53	Durham University	United Kingdom
=90	94	Kazan Federal University	Russian Federation
=90	=61	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	United States
92	42	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	United States
93	126–150	Middle East Technical University	Turkey
94	101–125	University of Delaware	United States
95	101–125	Vrije Universiteit Brussel	Belgium
96	73	University of Leicester	United Kingdom
=97	176–200	University of Malaya	Malaysia
=97	=81	Texas A&M University	United States
99	68	University of Iowa	United States
100	101–125	National Chiao Tung University	Taiwan
101–125	=81	University of Antwerp	Belgium
101–125	101–125	University of Arizona	United States
101–125	126–150	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
101–125	=86	University of Bath	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	Birkbeck, University of London	United Kingdom
101–125	=71	Boston University	United States
101–125	201–250	University of Cape Town	South Africa
101–125	151–175	City, University of London	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
101–125	126–150	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
101–125	97	University of Groningen	Netherlands
101–125	176–200	University of Kansas	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Macau	Macao
101–125	101–125	University of Massachusetts	United States
101–125	151–175	Mizzou - University of Missouri	United States
101–125	NR	National Cheng Kung University (NCKU)	Taiwan
101–125	84	North Carolina State University	United States
101–125	126–150	University of Reading	United Kingdom
101–125	92	University of Rochester	United States
101–125	126–150	Stockholm University	Sweden
101–125	=77	University of Technology Sydney	Australia
101–125	151–175	TU Dortmund University	Germany
101–125	101–125	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	The University of Western Australia	Australia
101–125	151–175	Western University	Canada
101–125	101–125	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea
101–125	=86	University of Zurich	Switzerland
126–150	101–125	University of Adelaide	Australia
126–150	201–250	Boğaziçi University	Turkey
126–150	=98	Curtin University	Australia
126–150	126–150	University of Cyprus	Cyprus
126–150	=77	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany
126–150	151–175	University of Lisbon	Portugal
126–150	151–175	University of Liverpool	United Kingdom
126–150	70	National Sun Yat-Sen University	Taiwan
126–150	101–125	The Open University	United Kingdom
126–150	176–200	University of Otago	New Zealand
126–150	126–150	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
126–150	201–250	Universiti Sains Malaysia	Malaysia
126–150	90	Seoul National University	South Korea
126–150	=95	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
126–150	=74	University of South Australia	Australia
126–150	201–250	University of Tasmania	Australia
126–150	101–125	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia	Malaysia
126–150	201–250	Temple University	United States
126–150	=95	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
126–150	126–150	Tufts University	United States
126–150	126–150	University College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
126–150	89	University of York	United Kingdom
151–175	101–125	University of Alberta	Canada
151–175	126–150	University of Bologna	Italy
151–175	151–175	University of Calgary	Canada
151–175	126–150	University of Campinas	Brazil
151–175	151–175	University of Canberra	Australia
151–175	201–250	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	University of Central Florida	United States
151–175	126–150	George Washington University	United States
151–175	101–125	Georgia State University	United States
151–175	NR	University of Graz	Austria
151–175	251–300	Hacettepe University	Turkey
151–175	201–250	Iowa State University	United States
151–175	126–150	University of Limerick	Republic of Ireland
151–175	201–250	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russian Federation
151–175	126–150	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
151–175	NR	University of Notre Dame	United States
151–175	126–150	University of Oregon	United States
151–175	176–200	University of Ottawa	Canada
151–175	126–150	University of Padua	Italy
151–175	NR	Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)	Brazil
151–175	201–250	Queen’s University	Canada
151–175	201–250	RMIT University	Australia
151–175	126–150	Sorbonne University	France
151–175	NR	South China Normal University	China
151–175	201–250	University of Sussex	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
151–175	101–125	University of Wollongong	Australia
176–200	101–125	Autonomous University of Madrid	Spain
176–200	101–125	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
176–200	126–150	Brunel University London	United Kingdom
176–200	126–150	Chulalongkorn University	Thailand
176–200	126–150	Concordia University	Canada
176–200	151–175	University of Deusto	Spain
176–200	251–300	University of East Anglia	United Kingdom
176–200	201–250	Florida International University	United States
176–200	151–175	University of Geneva	Switzerland
176–200	176–200	University of Gothenburg	Sweden
176–200	126–150	University of Illinois at Chicago	United States
176–200	151–175	National Autonomous University of Mexico	Mexico
176–200	176–200	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
176–200	251–300	NOVA University of Lisbon	Portugal
176–200	201–250	Queen’s University Belfast	United Kingdom
176–200	NR	RUDN University	Russian Federation
176–200	151–175	University of Salamanca	Spain
176–200	176–200	Stellenbosch University	South Africa
176–200	176–200	University of Turku	Finland
176–200	151–175	Uppsala University	Sweden
176–200	176–200	University of Vienna	Austria
176–200	251–300	University of Waikato	New Zealand
176–200	176–200	York University	Canada