Best universities for physics, chemistry and maths degrees 2024

Find the best universities for physics, chemistry and maths using Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings data

October 28 2020

The study of physical science covers a number of science degrees, including mathematics, chemistry and earth science, in addition to the obvious – physics and astronomy.

The best universities for studying physics, maths, chemistry and related subjects feature in a Times Higher Education ranking of 1,149 universities.

US universities take 165 places in the ranking, and they dominate the top 10.

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Only three institutions in the top 10 are not in the US: the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in the UK, and ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

Switzerland, home to the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern), the largest particle physics laboratory in the world, is well-represented in the ranking, with nine institutions overall. Other countries that make a strong showing include China (79 universities), the UK (59), Japan (54), Germany (44), Canada (30) and Australia (24).

The ranking uses the same methodology as the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021 but with adjusted weightings; more weight is given to citations and less to teaching and research. The full methodology can be found here.

Scroll down for a full list of degrees covered by the ranking and what you can do with them.

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Top 5 universities for physics, chemistry and maths

1. California Institute of Technology

The California Institute of Technology places strong emphasis on science teaching and research.

The faculty members at the university share 74 Nobel Prizes and 71 United States National Medals of Science or Technology between them, and include four chief scientists of the US Air Force.

Numerous staff members are also associated with NASA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which was founded in the 1930s and is owned by NASA, is operated as a division of Caltech. To date it has spent billions on research and development.

Physics is among one of the most popular undergraduate and postgraduate degrees on offer at the university.

2. University of California, Berkeley

Undergraduate majors in the physical sciences at the University of California, Berkeley include applied mathematics, astrophysics, earth science, geology, geophysics, mathematics, physical science, physics, and statistics. Undergraduates in all disciplines are encouraged to participate in research with faculty members.

The Berkeley Science Network strives to advance under-represented students in the mathematical, physical and computer sciences, and eliminate barriers faced by those students. It provides mentoring, networking opportunities and professional coaching and guidance.

3. Stanford University

About half of all undergraduates at Stanford University take at least one physics course as part of their studies.

These courses serve as essential training for science and engineering majors. The department offers introductory courses aimed at non-technical majors, in addition to highly specialised classes.

Studying chemistry at Stanford is also popular, with a specific chemical physics track for those students with a strong physics and maths background.

Students can major or minor in maths, and they have the opportunity to participate in an annual maths contest with cash prizes for excellent scores and for outstanding performances by women.

There are many streams for graduates studying physical sciences, from applied physics to biophysical chemistry. PhD programmes take about six years to complete.

What can you do with a physical science degree?

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What can you do with a physics degree?

4. Princeton University

The physics department at Princeton University aims to impart knowledge of the physical universe and to train students to think like a physicist – encompassing intuition, the scientific method, approximation and problem-solving skills.

Programmes on offer include engineering, physics, biophysics, computational biology and other more traditional physics courses.

In the department of chemistry, undergraduates are taught in small classes and progress to an independent senior thesis project. Students receive direct attention from faculty members throughout their course.

About 1,400 undergraduates enrol in a mathematics class every year at Princeton, learning the basics of mathematical proof, calculus and number theory before progressing to more complex subjects.

Graduate studies in mathematics focus on independent research from the beginning of the programme, unlike many other doctoral courses in the US.

=5. Harvard University

About 50 physics majors graduate from Harvard every year, not counting related degrees such as chemistry and mathematics.

Undergraduates can take advantage of a flexible course structure. Compared with other science majors, the physics course has few compulsory classes. Many students, therefore, choose to combine a physics major with maths, astronomy, history of science or chemistry.

Even at undergraduate level, students can carry out research projects independently and work as teaching assistants in some classes.

There is an active social and support community that organises buddies for new students, recreational events and extracurricular lectures in which students have the chance to interact informally with staff.

For graduate students, the primary areas of research at Harvard are high-energy particle physics, atomic and molecular physics, physics of solids and fluids, astrophysics, nuclear physics, statistical mechanics, quantum optics, mathematical physics, quantum field theory, string theory and relativity.

=5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In the past few years, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has produced the largest number of physics graduates of any university in the US.

The physics department is accordingly fairly large, with about 75 faculty members, almost 300 undergraduate students and 300 postgraduate students.

Since 1998, four alumni of MIT physics programmes have won Nobel prizes for their work.

Freshman physics courses are taught using an educational initiative known as “technology-enabled active learning”.

All undergraduates take maths classes as part of their degree, and many choose to major or minor in the subject.

Doctoral studies at MIT lead to a doctor of philosophy or a doctor of science degree, although these are equivalent in terms of degree status.

Mathematics graduates are admitted to applied or pure maths degrees, and applied maths students are encouraged to take classes in other departments, such as engineering.

Student experience of the physical sciences

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Best universities for physics, chemistry and maths degrees 2021

Click each institution to view its THE World University Rankings 2021 profile.

Physical sciences rank 2021	Physical sciences rank 2020	University	Country/region
1	2	California Institute of Technology	United States
2	9	University of California, Berkeley	United States
3	=3	Stanford University	United States
4	1	Princeton University	United States
=5	=5	Harvard University	United States
=5	=5	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
7	=3	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
8	7	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
9	8	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
10	12	Yale University	United States
11	10	The University of Chicago	United States
12	11	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
13	13	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
14	17	Peking University	China
15	14	Columbia University	United States
16	15	Cornell University	United States
17	20	Tsinghua University	China
18	19	National University of Singapore	Singapore
19	18	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France
20	16	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland
=21	24	École Polytechnique	France
=21	=21	LMU Munich	Germany
23	=21	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
24	23	University of Washington	United States
25	26	Technical University of Munich	Germany
26	33	UCL	United Kingdom
27	28	University of California, Santa Barbara	United States
28	32	Heidelberg University	Germany
29	29	The University of Tokyo	Japan
30	=34	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
31	=34	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
32	36	University of Texas at Austin	United States
33	25	University of Toronto	Canada
34	27	Northwestern University	United States
35	31	Johns Hopkins University	United States
36	=45	University of Science and Technology of China	China
37	=45	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
38	=37	University of Pennsylvania	United States
39	65	Fudan University	China
=40	48	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
=40	41	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
42	30	University of California, San Diego	United States
=43	=37	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
=43	42	Sorbonne University	France
45	40	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
46	39	Australian National University	Australia
47	=45	Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT)	Russian Federation
48	43	Duke University	United States
49	44	New York University	United States
50	87	Nanjing University	China
51	=55	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
52	52	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
53	53	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
54	=55	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
55	54	University of Bonn	Germany
56	59	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany
=57	62	University of Arizona	United States
=57	51	University of British Columbia	Canada
59	61	Kyoto University	Japan
60	67	University of California, Irvine	United States
61	NR	Paris-Saclay University	France
62	60	McGill University	Canada
63	64	University of California, Davis	United States
=64	49	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
=64	58	Wageningen University & Research	Netherlands
=66	70	University of Göttingen	Germany
=66	68	University of Melbourne	Australia
=66	50	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
69	=55	Rice University	United States
70	69	Karlsruhe Institute of Technology	Germany
71	63	RWTH Aachen University	Germany
72	80	Brown University	United States
=73	=72	University of Paris	France
=73	101–125	Technical University of Berlin	Germany
=75	66	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
=75	101–125	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
=75	=98	UNSW Sydney	Australia
78	=72	Utrecht University	Netherlands
79	=89	Seoul National University	South Korea
80	78	Leiden University	Netherlands
81	=81	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russian Federation
=82	=74	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=82	71	Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa	Italy
84	95	Monash University	Australia
=85	79	Durham University	United Kingdom
=85	86	KU Leuven	Belgium
=85	=96	Stockholm University	Sweden
88	92	University of Freiburg	Germany
=89	=96	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)	South Korea
=89	=81	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
91	101–125	The University of Queensland	Australia
92	91	University of Bern	Switzerland
=93	101–125	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
=93	=81	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
95	=81	University of Groningen	Netherlands
96	94	University of Geneva	Switzerland
97	101–125	King’s College London	United Kingdom
98	101-125	National Research Nuclear University MEPhI	Russian Federation
98	101–125	Stony Brook University	United States
99	=74	Lund University	Sweden
100	88	University of Copenhagen	Denmark
101–125	101–125	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
101–125	101–125	University of Basel	Switzerland
101–125	101–125	Boston University	United States
101–125	77	University of California, Santa Cruz	United States
101–125	100	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
101–125	76	École Normale Supérieure de Lyon	France
101–125	126–150	Free University of Berlin	Germany
101–125	101–125	University of Hamburg	Germany
101–125	93	University of Hawai’i at Mānoa	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Minnesota	United States
101–125	101–125	National Research Nuclear University MEPhI	Russian Federation
101–125	151–175	National Taiwan University (NTU)	Taiwan
101–125	201–250	Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University	Russian Federation
101–125	101–125	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
101–125	101–125	Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey	United States
101–125	126–150	Sapienza University of Rome	Italy
101–125	201–250	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
101–125	101–125	University of Sydney	Australia
101–125	126–150	Technical University of Denmark	Denmark
101–125	101–125	Télécom Paris	France
101–125	126–150	Texas A&M University	United States
101–125	101–125	Uppsala University	Sweden
101–125	126–150	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
101–125	101–125	University of Waterloo	Canada
101–125	101–125	University of Zurich	Switzerland
126–150	126–150	Aarhus University	Denmark
126–150	126–150	University of Adelaide	Australia
126–150	151–175	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
126–150	126–150	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	École des Ponts ParisTech	France
126–150	151–175	Eindhoven University of Technology	Netherlands
126–150	126–150	Ghent University	Belgium
126–150	126–150	Grenoble Alpes University	France
126–150	101–125	University of Helsinki	Finland
126–150	126–150	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia
126–150	101–125	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
126–150	126–150	University of Massachusetts	United States
126–150	85	Michigan State University	United States
126–150	126–150	University of Münster	Germany
126–150	101–125	Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)	South Korea
126–150	126–150	University of Reading	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	University of Rochester	United States
126–150	126–150	University of Southern California	United States
126–150	=98	Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)	South Korea
126–150	101–125	Tohoku University	Japan
126–150	126–150	Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)	South Korea
126–150	101–125	University of Vienna	Austria
126–150	126–150	The University of Western Australia	Australia
126–150	151–175	University of Wollongong	Australia
126–150	126–150	Zhejiang University	China
151–175	151–175	University of Antwerp	Belgium
151–175	126–150	University of California, Riverside	United States
151–175	176–200	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
151–175	176–200	Curtin University	Australia
151–175	151–175	University of East Anglia	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	Emory University	United States
151–175	126–150	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	University of Florida	United States
151–175	151–175	Florida State University	United States
151–175	176–200	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
151–175	126–150	Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz	Germany
151–175	301–400	Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT	Finland
151–175	151–175	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
151–175	176–200	University of Luxembourg	Luxembourg
151–175	101–125	Nagoya University	Japan
151–175	151–175	University of Notre Dame	United States
151–175	151–175	University of Oslo	Norway
151–175	151–175	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	University of Sussex	United Kingdom
151–175	176–200	University of Technology Sydney	Australia
151–175	151–175	The University of Tennessee-Knoxville	United States
151–175	151–175	TU Dresden	Germany
151–175	176–200	University of Victoria	Canada
151–175	176–200	William & Mary	United States
151–175	176–200	Wuhan University	China
176–200	151–175	University of Alberta	Canada
176–200	201–250	Beijing Normal University	China
176–200	201–250	Brandeis University	United States
176–200	201–250	Case Western Reserve University	United States
176–200	176–200	Chalmers University of Technology	Sweden
176–200	126–150	Colorado School of Mines	United States
176–200	176–200	University of Delaware	United States
176–200	401–500	East China Normal University	China
176–200	151–175	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	University of Innsbruck	Austria
176–200	176–200	KTH Royal Institute of Technology	Sweden
176–200	176–200	University of Leicester	United Kingdom
176–200	201–250	Université libre de Bruxelles	Belgium
176–200	176–200	University of Liverpool	United Kingdom
176–200	251–300	McMaster University	Canada
176–200	151–175	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
176–200	126–150	Novosibirsk State University	Russian Federation
176–200	176–200	Queen Mary University of London	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
176–200	151–175	University of Tasmania	Australia
176–200	176–200	Tel Aviv University	Israel
176–200	151–175	Tokyo Institute of Technology	Japan
176–200	151–175	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
176–200	201–250	University of Tübingen	Germany
176–200	151–175	University College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
176–200	151–175	Washington University in St Louis	United States