Best universities for life sciences degrees 2024

By seeta.bhardwa@…, 26 October, 2023

Top 10 universities in the world for life sciences degrees 2024

Scroll down for the full list of the best universities in world for life sciences degrees.

Life sciences Rank 2024	Life sciences rank 2023	University	Country/region
1	1	Harvard University	United States
2	2	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
3	4	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
4	5	Stanford University	United States
5	3	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
6	7	Yale University	United States
7	8	Princeton University	United States
8	10	Johns Hopkins University	United States
9	9	University of California, Berkeley	United States
10	14	Imperial College London	United Kingdom

If you’re choosing where to study pharmacy, biochemistry, zoology or other related subjects, Times Higher Education’s ranking for life sciences can help you find the best universities in the world for your degree.

The top colleges for life sciences are concentrated in the US and the UK: 190 of the 1,059 universities in the THE ranking for life sciences are in these two countries. Other countries that are well represented in this ranking include China, Japan and Germany.

Older prestigious institutions take the top spots, with Harvard University taking first place, closely followed by the University of Cambridge.

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Life sciences covers a range of subjects, from forestry to biotechnology. A full list of the degrees included and what you can do with them appears below.

Graduates of life sciences degrees go on to work in a variety of fields including teaching, research, law and finance. Many jobs directly use life science research and knowledge, such as roles in pharmaceutical companies, environmental work and forensic science.

The life sciences ranking assesses universities using 18 indicators of excellence that evaluate teaching, research, research influence and international outlook. The full methodology can be found here.

Best universities for life sciences degrees in Canada
Best universities for life sciences degrees in the US
Best universities for life sciences degrees in the UK
Best universities for life sciences degrees in Australia

Top five universities for life sciences degrees

5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Many academic departments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offer courses in life sciences subjects to contribute towards a major or minor degree subject.

Courses range from biological engineering – a discipline that combines principles of engineering and biological systems – to “science, technology and society”, which offers a more comprehensive overview of life sciences and its applications.

The university offers undergraduate and postgraduate life sciences degrees. Although an undergraduate major in a life sciences subject is excellent preparation for many jobs, further study in health sciences or engineering is a common post-graduation option.

Many life sciences graduates will continue on to medical school. Other career paths suggested by the School of Life Sciences are finance, intellectual property law and forensics.

4. Stanford University

Stanford University is particularly renowned for science and innovation, and university researchers, students and alumni contribute significantly to technological development in Silicon Valley, which is located right near the university.

Stanford’s department of biology leads the way for life sciences research, while the bioengineering department creates a fusion of engineering and life sciences by inventing new technologies.

The biology department offers courses in biochemistry, biophysics, computational biology, conservational biology and many other subdisciplines.

Many Stanford alumni have won prestigious accolades, such as Nobel prizes, Rhodes scholarships and Turing awards.

Of the more than 15,000 students, more than 20 per cent are international.

3. University of Oxford

Life sciences degrees at the University of Oxford are spread across a number of specialised departments within both the science and the clinical divisions of the university.

Many world-leading academics work at the university. Richard Dawkins, the famous evolutionary biologist, is affiliated to the university and can often be seen around town or at public events.

Oxford students each belong to a college, where they live, eat and attend small-group tutorials with teachers. Postgraduate students are more likely to live off campus and will not necessarily be taught within their colleges.

Life sciences courses available at the University of Oxford include biology and earth sciences.

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2. University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge’s School of Biological Sciences contains nine departments and various research centres, including the departments of biochemistry, pharmacology and zoology.

There is also a Graduate School of Life Sciences, which is responsible for master’s degrees and doctorates.

Four major undergraduate programmes in life sciences are offered: biological sciences as a natural science specialism, a pre-clinical veterinary science programme, a psychological and behavioural sciences programme, and medical science.

Students have close interaction with teachers through the tutorial system and are automatically members of their college communities, where they eat meals, live in college-owned buildings and attend recreational activities.

Charles Darwin, perhaps the most famous life scientist of them all, was an alumnus of Christ’s College, Cambridge, and many other prominent biologists have studied or taught at the university.

1. Harvard University

As is the case at many US colleges, undergraduates at Harvard University have the opportunity to take a variety of different courses before declaring a major subject.

Within life sciences, there are many interdisciplinary foundational courses grouped in nine concentrations to help students “explore the diversity of living systems”. The majors include biomedical engineering, neurobiology and human evolutionary biology.

According to the university, life sciences graduates often go on to postgraduate work, including medical or scientific research. Other graduates have pursued careers in business, consulting and environmental advocacy.

Harvard is perhaps the world’s best-known university; it regularly takes the top spot in global reputation surveys. It has built its reputation, wealth and influence over more than 400 years, having been founded in 1636.

Although tuition is expensive, students from low-income families are fully supported by university grants.

Best universities for life sciences 2024

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2024 profile.

Life sciences Rank 2024	Life sciences rank 2023	University	Country/region
1	1	Harvard University	United States
2	2	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
3	4	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
4	5	Stanford University	United States
5	3	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
6	7	Yale University	United States
7	8	Princeton University	United States
8	10	Johns Hopkins University	United States
9	9	University of California, Berkeley	United States
10	14	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
11	6	California Institute of Technology	United States
=12	18	Peking University	China
=12	11	Tsinghua University	China
14	12	Columbia University	United States
=15	19	Cornell University	United States
=15	13	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
17	21	University of Pennsylvania	United States
18	17	The University of Chicago	United States
19	20	Wageningen University & Research	Netherlands
20	22	UCL	United Kingdom
21	16	University of Washington	United States
22	23	National University of Singapore	Singapore
23	=24	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
24	15	University of California, San Diego	United States
25	26	Duke University	United States
26	28	University of California, Davis	United States
27	=24	University of Toronto	Canada
28	29	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
29	30	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
30	38	The University of Tokyo	Japan
31	31	Karolinska Institute	Sweden
32	27	Universität Heidelberg	Germany
=33	=33	University of British Columbia	Canada
=33	35	Technical University of Munich	Germany
35	39	King’s College London	United Kingdom
36	37	University of Melbourne	Australia
37	36	Washington University in St Louis	United States
38	32	The University of Queensland	Australia
39	40	New York University	United States
40	=43	Kyoto University	Japan
41	=33	LMU Munich	Germany
42	42	Fudan University	China
43	41	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=44	=49	McGill University	Canada
=44	=49	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
=46	=47	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
=46	46	University of Sydney	Australia
=48	=47	Ghent University	Belgium
=48	67	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
50	=49	Northwestern University	United States
51	=43	University of Göttingen	Germany
52	64	Zhejiang University	China
53	52	Uppsala University	Sweden
=54	55	KU Leuven	Belgium
=54	61	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
56	45	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland
57	=57	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
58	=57	University of Tübingen	Germany
59	54	Monash University	Australia
60	56	Sorbonne University	France
61	60	Australian National University	Australia
62	=71	Université Paris-Saclay	France
63	65	University of Zurich	Switzerland
64	68	Seoul National University	South Korea
=65	62	University of Freiburg	Germany
=65	=69	University of Minnesota	United States
67	66	Emory University	United States
=68	=86	Aarhus University	Denmark
=68	=100	Osaka University	Japan
70	78	University of Massachusetts	United States
71	=83	Lund University	Sweden
=72	75	Boston University	United States
=72	=90	University of Florida	United States
=72	=71	Vanderbilt University	United States
75	=69	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
76	74	University of Science and Technology of China	China
=77	92	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=77	=76	University of Helsinki	Finland
79	53	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France
80	=88	University of Southern California	United States
81	=88	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
82	=76	Free University of Berlin	Germany
83	=57	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany
=84	126–150	Purdue University West Lafayette	United States
=84	93	UNSW Sydney	Australia
=86	79	University of Basel	Switzerland
=86	=86	University of Bonn	Germany
=86	=90	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
89	81	The University of Western Australia	Australia
90	126–150	Nanjing University	China
91	101–125	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
92	97	Trinity College Dublin	Ireland
93	101–125	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea
94	=98	University of Lausanne	Switzerland
95	101–125	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	United States
96	=98	Michigan State University	United States
97	126–150	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
98	=83	Stockholm University	Sweden
=99	101–125	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=99	94	University of Vienna	Austria
101–125	101–125	University of Aberdeen	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	University of Adelaide	Australia
101–125	126–150	University of Alberta	Canada
101–125	101–125	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	Brown University	United States
101–125	101–125	University of California, Irvine	United States
101–125	73	University of California, Santa Barbara	United States
101–125	151–175	University of Cape Town	South Africa
101–125	101–125	University of Cologne	Germany
101–125	101–125	Dartmouth College	United States
101–125	=95	University of Dundee	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
101–125	=100	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
101–125	101–125	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	McMaster University	Canada
101–125	101–125	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	Queen Mary University of London	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	Sichuan University	China
101–125	126–150	Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences	Sweden
101–125	101–125	University of Tasmania	Australia
101–125	101–125	Technical University of Denmark	Denmark
101–125	126–150	Texas A&M University	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Texas at Austin	United States
101–125	151–175	Tohoku University	Japan
101–125	126–150	Wuhan University	China
101–125	=95	University of Würzburg	Germany
126–150	151–175	University of Barcelona	Spain
126–150	151–175	University of Bern	Switzerland
126–150	101–125	University of California, Riverside	United States
126–150	=100	University of California, Santa Cruz	United States
126–150	126–150	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	University of East Anglia	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Friedrich Schiller University Jena	Germany
126–150	126–150	University of Geneva	Switzerland
126–150	176–200	Goethe University Frankfurt	Germany
126–150	176–200	University of Guelph	Canada
126–150	176–200	Hokkaido University	Japan
126–150	151–175	Montpellier University	France
126–150	176–200	University of Montreal	Canada
126–150	151–175	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
126–150	126–150	University of Oslo	Norway
126–150	101–125	Université Paris Cité	France
126–150	126–150	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
126–150	80	Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)	South Korea
126–150	151–175	Queen’s University Belfast	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
126–150	151–175	University of São Paulo	Brazil
126–150	126–150	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
126–150	151–175	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	TU Dresden	Germany
151–175	151–175	University of Antwerp	Belgium
151–175	151–175	University of Auckland	New Zealand
151–175	176–200	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
151–175	176–200	University of Bergen	Norway
151–175	126–150	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
151–175	151–175	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
151–175	201–250	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg	Germany
151–175	176–200	University of Gothenburg	Sweden
151–175	151–175	University of Hamburg	Germany
151–175	126–150	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
151–175	201–250	Huazhong University of Science and Technology	China
151–175	=83	Institut Polytechnique de Paris	France
151–175	126–150	James Cook University	Australia
151–175	151–175	University of Konstanz	Germany
151–175	251–300	Kyushu University	Japan
151–175	176–200	University of Liverpool	United Kingdom
151–175	NR	Macquarie University	Australia
151–175	251–300	Nagoya University	Japan
151–175	176–200	National Taiwan University (NTU)	Taiwan
151–175	126–150	University of Reading	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	Rice University	United States
151–175	126–150	Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech)	China
151–175	151–175	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
151–175	176–200	University of York	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	University of Arizona	United States
176–200	176–200	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
176–200	251–300	Beijing Normal University	China
176–200	126–150	University of Bremen	Germany
176–200	151–175	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
176–200	201–250	Griffith University	Australia
176–200	176–200	University of Hawai’i at Mānoa	United States
176–200	151–175	Iowa State University	United States
176–200	101–125	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia
176–200	201–250	La Trobe University	Australia
176–200	201–250	Université Laval	Canada
176–200	201–250	University of Leicester	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	Université Libre de Bruxelles	Belgium
176–200	151–175	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
176–200	201–250	University of Ottawa	Canada
176–200	176–200	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
176–200	201–250	University of Rochester	United States
176–200	251–300	Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)	South Korea
176–200	151–175	University of Tartu	Estonia
176–200	151–175	University of Technology Sydney	Australia
176–200	201–250	Tel Aviv University	Israel
176–200	201–250	Ulm University	Germany
176–200	201–250	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
176–200	176–200	Vrije Universiteit Brussel	Belgium

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.