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
chemist, chemistry, science, research

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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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

Click here to view the full ranking for physics, chemistry and maths degrees

Read more: the most detailed subject guide you will ever see to help you pick your degree

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