Best universities for life sciences degrees 2023

Top 10 universities in the world for life sciences degrees

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

Life sciences rank 2023	Life sciences rank 2022	University	Country/region
1	1	Harvard University	United States
2	2	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
3	=3	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
4	=3	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
5	7	Stanford University	United States
6	6	California Institute of Technology	United States
7	8	Yale University	United States
8	5	Princeton University	United States
9	9	University of California, Berkeley	United States
10	10	Johns Hopkins University	United States

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: 199 of the 1,017 universities in the THE ranking for life sciences are in these two countries.

Older prestigious institutions take the top spots, including Harvard University in first place, with the University of Cambridge, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Oxford following closely behind.

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

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

The life sciences ranking assesses universities using 13 indicators of excellence that evaluate teaching, research, research influence, innovation and international outlook. The full methodology can be found here.

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Best universities for life science degrees in the US
Best universities for life sciences degrees in the UK
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Top five universities for life sciences degrees

5. 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.

4. 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 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 college.

In general, Oxford graduates progress to high-profile careers, and many prominent politicians, cultural figures and award-winning scientists are associated with the university.

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3. 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 pioneering new 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 science 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.

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 community, 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 science graduates often go on to postgraduate work, including medical or scientific research. Other graduates have recently 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.

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Best universities for life sciences 2023

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2023 profile

Life sciences rank 2023	Life sciences rank 2022	University	Country/region
1	1	Harvard University	United States
2	2	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
3	=3	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
4	=3	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
5	7	Stanford University	United States
6	6	California Institute of Technology	United States
7	8	Yale University	United States
8	5	Princeton University	United States
9	9	University of California, Berkeley	United States
10	10	Johns Hopkins University	United States
11	13	Tsinghua University	China
12	11	Columbia University	United States
13	14	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
14	15	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
15	17	University of California, San Diego	United States
16	18	University of Washington	United States
17	12	The University of Chicago	United States
18	=19	Peking University	China
19	16	Cornell University	United States
20	=19	Wageningen University & Research	Netherlands
21	23	University of Pennsylvania	United States
22	22	UCL	United Kingdom
23	24	National University of Singapore	Singapore
=24	=19	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
=24	25	University of Toronto	Canada
26	26	Duke University	United States
27	34	Heidelberg University	Germany
28	30	University of California, Davis	United States
29	31	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
30	27	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
31	=28	Karolinska Institute	Sweden
32	40	The University of Queensland	Australia
=33	33	University of British Columbia	Canada
=33	=28	LMU Munich	Germany
35	=43	Technical University of Munich	Germany
36	32	Washington University in St Louis	United States
37	35	University of Melbourne	Australia
38	37	The University of Tokyo	Japan
39	39	King’s College London	United Kingdom
40	36	New York University	United States
41	42	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
42	=49	Fudan University	China
=43	52	University of Göttingen	Germany
=43	46	Kyoto University	Japan
45	38	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland
46	=60	University of Sydney	Australia
=47	48	Ghent University	Belgium
=47	64	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
=49	=49	McGill University	Canada
=49	51	Northwestern University	United States
=49	=43	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
52	=56	Uppsala University	Sweden
53	41	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France
54	63	Monash University	Australia
55	58	KU Leuven	Belgium
56	45	Sorbonne University	France
=57	54	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany
=57	=60	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
=57	62	University of Tübingen	Germany
60	65	Australian National University	Australia
61	=66	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
62	=69	University of Freiburg	Germany
63	47	Utrecht University	Netherlands
64	59	Zhejiang University	China
65	=56	University of Zurich	Switzerland
66	73	Emory University	United States
67	151–175	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
68	80	Seoul National University	South Korea
=69	55	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
=69	71	University of Minnesota	United States
=71	53	Université Paris-Saclay	France
=71	81	Vanderbilt University	United States
73	74	University of California, Santa Barbara	United States
74	=66	University of Science and Technology of China	China
75	68	Boston University	United States
=76	=69	Free University of Berlin	Germany
=76	83	University of Helsinki	Finland
78	=92	University of Massachusetts	United States
79	=98	University of Basel	Switzerland
80	101–125	Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)	South Korea
81	79	The University of Western Australia	Australia
82	77	University of Groningen	Netherlands
=83	84	Institut Polytechnique de Paris	France
=83	=75	Lund University	Sweden
=83	85	Stockholm University	Sweden
=86	=100	Aarhus University	Denmark
=86	=89	University of Bonn	Germany
=88	101–125	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
=88	=98	University of Southern California	United States
=90	=100	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
=90	72	University of Florida	United States
92	151–175	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
93	88	UNSW Sydney	Australia
94	=89	University of Vienna	Austria
=95	=86	University of Dundee	United Kingdom
=95	91	University of Würzburg	Germany
97	82	Trinity College Dublin	Ireland
=98	126–150	University of Lausanne	Switzerland
=98	=75	Michigan State University	United States
=100	101–125	University of California, Santa Cruz	United States
=100	126–150	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
=100	94	Osaka University	Japan
101–125	95	University of Aberdeen	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	University of Adelaide	Australia
101–125	101–125	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
101–125	=86	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	University of California, Irvine	United States
101–125	101–125	University of California, Riverside	United States
101–125	126–150	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
101–125	101–125	University of Cologne	Germany
101–125	=96	Dartmouth College	United States
101–125	=92	University of East Anglia	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
101–125	151–175	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia
101–125	=96	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	McMaster University	Canada
101–125	101–125	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	Université Paris Cité	France
101–125	126–150	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	United States
101–125	101–125	Queen Mary University of London	United Kingdom
101–125	301–400	Sichuan University	China
101–125	101–125	University of Tasmania	Australia
101–125	101–125	Technical University of Denmark	Denmark
101–125	78	University of Texas at Austin	United States
101–125	126–150	TU Dresden	Germany
101–125	251–300	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea
126–150	101–125	University of Alberta	Canada
126–150	126–150	University of Bremen	Germany
126–150	126–150	Brown University	United States
126–150	201–250	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
126–150	176–200	Friedrich Schiller University Jena	Germany
126–150	101–125	University of Geneva	Switzerland
126–150	NR	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
126–150	101–125	James Cook University	Australia
126–150	101–125	University of Luxembourg	Luxembourg
126–150	151–175	Nanjing University	China
126–150	101–125	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
126–150	151–175	University of Oslo	Norway
126–150	126–150	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
126–150	NR	Purdue University West Lafayette	United States
126–150	126–150	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
126–150	126–150	University of Reading	United Kingdom
126–150	151–175	Rice University	United States
126–150	126–150	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech)	China
126–150	101–125	Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences	Sweden
126–150	126–150	Texas A&M University	United States
126–150	101–125	Wuhan University	China
151–175	126–150	University of Antwerp	Belgium
151–175	151–175	University of Auckland	New Zealand
151–175	176–200	University of Barcelona	Spain
151–175	151–175	University of Bern	Switzerland
151–175	176–200	University of Cape Town	South Africa
151–175	126–150	Colorado State University, Fort Collins	United States
151–175	151–175	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
151–175	151–175	École Normale Supérieure de Lyon	France
151–175	126–150	University of Hamburg	Germany
151–175	126–150	Iowa State University	United States
151–175	176–200	University of Konstanz	Germany
151–175	151–175	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
151–175	151–175	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
151–175	101–125	Montpellier University	France
151–175	126–150	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
151–175	201–250	Qatar University	Qatar
151–175	201–250	Queen’s University Belfast	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	University of São Paulo	Brazil
151–175	151–175	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	University of Stuttgart	Germany
151–175	151–175	University of Tartu	Estonia
151–175	176–200	University of Technology Sydney	Australia
151–175	201–250	Temple University	United States
151–175	176–200	Tohoku University	Japan
151–175	176–200	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
176–200	201–250	University of Arizona	United States
176–200	151–175	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
176–200	201–250	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
176–200	201–250	Bangor University	United Kingdom
176–200	201–250	University of Bergen	Norway
176–200	176–200	Goethe University Frankfurt	Germany
176–200	201–250	University of Gothenburg	Sweden
176–200	201–250	University of Guelph	Canada
176–200	251–300	University of Hawai’i at Mānoa	United States
176–200	176–200	Hokkaido University	Japan
176–200	151–175	University of Iceland	Iceland
176–200	201–250	University of Kiel	Germany
176–200	151–175	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	Université Libre de Bruxelles	Belgium
176–200	201–250	University of Liverpool	United Kingdom
176–200	126–150	University of Macau	Macao
176–200	151–175	University of Montreal	Canada
176–200	101–125	National Taiwan University (NTU)	Taiwan
176–200	176–200	University of Padua	Italy
176–200	201–250	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
176–200	251–300	Semmelweis University	Hungary
176–200	151–175	University of Stirling	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	Tallinn University of Technology	Estonia
176–200	151–175	Vrije Universiteit Brussel	Belgium
176–200	151–175	University of York	United Kingdom

Click here to view the full life sciences ranking