Best universities for education degrees 2024

Top 10 universities in the world for education 2024

Scroll down for the full list of best universities in the world for education degrees

Education rank 2024	Education rank 2023	University	Country/region
1	2	University of California, Berkeley	United States
2	1	Stanford University	United States
3	6	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
4	4	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
5	3	Harvard University	United States
6	5	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
7	NR	Tsinghua University	China
8	8	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
9	13	University of Toronto	Canada
10	11	University of California, Los Angeles	United States

An education degree can open 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 institution for you.

Tsinghua University is the only university in Asia to rank among the top 10. The only UK institutions in the top 10 are the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, at third and fourth, respectively. The University of Toronto moves up five places this year to feature in the top 10. 

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Best universities in Australia for education degrees
Best universities for education degrees in the UK
Best universities in the US for education degrees
Best universities in Canada for education degrees

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US universities are well represented in the subject ranking for education, with 124 universities. A total of 72 universities are from the UK and 77 are from Asia.

Canada and Australia are also represented in the ranking, with 22 and 35 universities, respectively.

Times Higher Education subject rankings are based on the same 18 performance indicators used in the overall World University Rankings 2024. However, the methodology is carefully recalibrated for each subject, with the weightings adjusted to suit the individual fields. The full methodology for the education ranking can be found here.

Top 5 universities for education degrees

5. Harvard University

Harvard University offers 13 master’s programmes and a number of doctoral programmes in education.

The master’s courses cover many aspects of the subject, including arts and education, higher education, international education policy, and human development and education.

Among the faculty are experts in wide-ranging aspects of education, including bilingual education, adult learning, economy and education, and social services and schools.

4. University of Cambridge

Education is offered at both undergraduate and postgraduate level at the University of Cambridge.

The three-year undergraduate education degree accepts only 42 students per year.

The undergraduate course consists of three possible tracks: education, psychology and learning; education, policy and international development; or education, English, drama and the arts.

Postgraduates wishing to study education can choose a PGCE, master’s or doctorate. The PGCE course is taken as a specialism in primary or secondary (high school) education. Both options include significant placement time, with secondary PGCE students spending at least 120 days of the course in schools.

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What can you do with an education degree?

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3. 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 provides teacher training for primary and secondary school teachers.

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

2. Stanford University

The Stanford University Graduate School of Education is one of seven schools at the institution, which also include business, law, engineering and medicine. It has a reputation as one of the best education schools in the US.

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 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.

1. University of California, Berkeley

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

Undergraduates also have the option to take a minor in education, and it is one of the university’s most popular minors.

At Berkeley, there are also courses that will prepare students for a teaching career, from classroom teaching to district-level leadership.

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Top 200 universities for education degrees 2024

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2024 profile

Education rank 2024	Education rank 2023	University	Country/region
1	2	University of California, Berkeley	United States
2	1	Stanford University	United States
3	6	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
4	4	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
5	3	Harvard University	United States
6	5	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
7	NR	Tsinghua University	China
8	8	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
9	13	University of Toronto	Canada
10	11	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
11	12	UCL	United Kingdom
12	7	Peking University	China
13	9	Michigan State University	United States
=14	18	University of Melbourne	Australia
=14	26	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
16	14	Monash University	Australia
17	15	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
18	10	University of Pennsylvania	United States
19	17	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
20	19	Beijing Normal University	China
21	27	University of Sydney	Australia
22	16	New York University	United States
23	22	University of British Columbia	Canada
24	21	University of Texas at Austin	United States
25	=32	The University of Tokyo	Japan
26	28	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
27	20	Vanderbilt University	United States
28	29	Maastricht University	Netherlands
29	23	University of Washington	United States
30	=43	Johns Hopkins University	United States
31	34	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
32	30	University of Auckland	New Zealand
33	31	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
34	25	Boston College	United States
=35	=32	King’s College London	United Kingdom
=35	36	KU Leuven	Belgium
37	40	The University of Queensland	Australia
38	42	National Taiwan Normal University	Taiwan
39	41	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
40	35	University of Helsinki	Finland
41	51	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
42	=43	University of California, Irvine	United States
=43	39	McGill University	Canada
=43	49	National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Taiwan Tech)	Taiwan
45	=43	University of Tübingen	Germany
46	59	University of California, San Diego	United States
47	37	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
48	69	Zhejiang University	China
49	52	University of Oslo	Norway
50	50	Technical University of Munich	Germany
=51	38	Florida State University	United States
=51	=78	Purdue University West Lafayette	United States
53	=71	Ghent University	Belgium
54	=66	Texas A&M University	United States
=55	58	University of Southern California	United States
=55	64	UNSW Sydney	Australia
=57	46	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
=57	48	Kyoto University	Japan
59	57	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
60	60	Indiana University	United States
61	63	LMU Munich	Germany
62	=53	Seoul National University	South Korea
63	=66	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
=64	74	Deakin University	Australia
=64	101–125	University of Massachusetts	United States
66	70	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany
67	76	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
=68	47	East China Normal University	China
=68	55	University of Florida	United States
=68	=78	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
71	126–150	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
=72	84	Aarhus University	Denmark
=72	68	Brown University	United States
=72	101–125	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
=75	126–150	University of Alberta	Canada
=75	65	Western University	Canada
=77	=87	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
=77	101–125	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	United States
79	61	University of Antwerp	Belgium
80	126–150	University of Groningen	Netherlands
81	=71	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
82	62	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
=83	101–125	Middle East Technical University	Turkey
=83	91	University of Technology Sydney	Australia
85	93	Macquarie University	Australia
86	81	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
=87	73	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
=87	101–125	University of São Paulo	Brazil
89	=78	University of Georgia	United States
=90	96	University of Bath	United Kingdom
=90	=53	Korea University	South Korea
=92	151–175	University of Cape Town	South Africa
=92	77	Durham University	United Kingdom
=92	=100	University of Malaya	Malaysia
96	=100	University of Montreal	Canada
=97	75	University of Adelaide	Australia
=97	151–175	University of Vienna	Austria
99	=97	Free University of Berlin	Germany
100	101–125	Trinity College Dublin	Ireland
101–125	=89	University of Arizona	United States
101–125	151–175	University of Barcelona	Spain
101–125	101–125	University of California, Santa Barbara	United States
101–125	301–400	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
101–125	=94	Curtin University	Australia
101–125	101–125	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
101–125	151–175	Griffith University	Australia
101–125	101–125	University of Hamburg	Germany
101–125	101–125	University of Illinois Chicago	United States
101–125	126–150	University of Iowa	United States
101–125	=100	University of Jyväskylä	Finland
101–125	82	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia
101–125	126–150	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	University of Limerick	Ireland
101–125	86	University of Minnesota	United States
101–125	101–125	The Open University	United Kingdom
101–125	201–250	University of Porto	Portugal
101–125	126–150	University of Rochester	United States
101–125	=89	Simon Fraser University	Canada
101–125	=97	University of South Australia	Australia
101–125	83	University College Dublin	Ireland
101–125	101–125	Victoria University of Wellington	New Zealand
101–125	101–125	The University of Western Australia	Australia
101–125	85	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea
126–150	126–150	Australian Catholic University	Australia
126–150	126–150	Autonomous University of Madrid	Spain
126–150	176–200	University of Bologna	Italy
126–150	151–175	University of Calgary	Canada
126–150	126–150	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	Fudan University	China
126–150	176–200	Georgia State University	United States
126–150	101–125	University of Gothenburg	Sweden
126–150	151–175	University of Hawai’i at Mānoa	United States
126–150	101–125	University of Kansas	United States
126–150	176–200	University of Lisbon	Portugal
126–150	101–125	University of Macau	Macao
126–150	101–125	North Carolina State University	United States
126–150	151–175	University of Padua	Italy
126–150	126–150	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
126–150	92	Sorbonne University	France
126–150	126–150	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
126–150	176–200	Tufts University	United States
126–150	176–200	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	United States
126–150	126–150	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
126–150	101–125	Vrije Universiteit Brussel	Belgium
126–150	151–175	University of Wollongong	Australia
126–150	101–125	University of York	United Kingdom
126–150	176–200	York University	Canada
126–150	101–125	University of Zurich	Switzerland
151–175	151–175	Aalborg University	Denmark
151–175	201–250	Boston University	United States
151–175	126–150	University of California, Davis	United States
151–175	151–175	University of Campinas	Brazil
151–175	251–300	University of Central Florida	United States
151–175	126–150	University of Connecticut	United States
151–175	151–175	Hong Kong Baptist University	Hong Kong
151–175	=97	Huazhong University of Science and Technology	China
151–175	151–175	University of Leicester	United Kingdom
151–175	201–250	University of Luxembourg	Luxembourg
151–175	201–250	University of Minho	Portugal
151–175	151–175	Monterrey Institute of Technology	Mexico
151–175	126–150	University of Newcastle	Australia
151–175	126–150	University of Ottawa	Canada
151–175	151–175	Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris	Malaysia
151–175	201–250	Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile	Chile
151–175	176–200	Queen’s University Belfast	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
151–175	=94	University of Reading	United Kingdom
151–175	176–200	Universiti Sains Malaysia	Malaysia
151–175	151–175	University of Saskatchewan	Canada
151–175	151–175	Stockholm University	Sweden
151–175	251–300	Western Sydney University	Australia
176–200	301–400	Aix-Marseille University	France
176–200	251–300	University at Buffalo	United States
176–200	201–250	University of California, Santa Cruz	United States
176–200	126–150	Chung-Ang University	South Korea
176–200	151–175	University of Cologne	Germany
176–200	151–175	University of Delaware	United States
176–200	176–200	University of Geneva	Switzerland
176–200	251–300	University of Granada	Spain
176–200	201–250	Iowa State University	United States
176–200	251–300	University of Johannesburg	South Africa
176–200	201–250	La Trobe University	Australia
176–200	176–200	University of Mannheim	Germany
176–200	176–200	Mizzou - University of Missouri	United States
176–200	101–125	National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University	Taiwan
176–200	151–175	University of Oulu	Finland
176–200	201–250	University of Potsdam	Germany
176–200	126–150	Queen’s University	Canada
176–200	251–300	RMIT University	Australia
176–200	201–250	Stellenbosch University	South Africa
176–200	126–150	Swansea University	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	Syracuse University	United States
176–200	176–200	Tampere University	Finland
176–200	201–250	Tel Aviv University	Israel
176–200	151–175	TU Dortmund University	Germany
176–200	176–200	TU Dresden	Germany

Editor’s note: As part of our THE statement on Ukraine published on 2 March 2022, Russian universities have been given less prominence in our rankings. Russian universities that met the criteria for this ranking are not displayed in the table above.