Best universities for physics, chemistry and maths degrees 2024

Top 10 universities for physics, chemistry and maths degrees 2024

Scroll down for the full list of the best universities in the world for physics, chemistry and maths degrees.

Physical sciences rank 2024	Physical sciences rank 2023	University	Country/region
1	4	California Institute of Technology	United States
2	6	Harvard University	United States
3	5	Stanford University	United States
4	=2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
5	7	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
=6	=2	University of California, Berkeley	United States
=6	1	Princeton University	United States
8	8	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
9	9	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
10	12	Yale University	United States

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 1,370 universities.

US universities are the most represented in the ranking, taking 163 places, and American institutions dominate the top 10.

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Only three institutions in the top 10 are not in the US: the Universities of Oxford and 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 (80 universities), the UK (59), Japan (57), Germany (45), Canada (30) and Australia (28).

The ranking uses the same methodology as the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024, but with adjusted weightings. 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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Best universities in the US for physical science degrees
Best universities in the UK for physical science degrees
Best universities in Australia for physical science degrees
Best universities for physical science degrees in Canada

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Top 5 universities for physics, chemistry and maths

5. University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge has a long and distinguished history of training and research in physical sciences. Famous names including Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Ernest Rutherford and, more recently, Stephen Hawking, have all been associated with the university.

The natural sciences course covers most biological and physical science subjects, allowing specialisation from the second year in physics, chemistry, biology, earth sciences and other specific disciplines.

Maths is a separate degree course, often considered one of the most demanding programmes. Maths students are nicknamed “mathmos” and undertake the course in three parts, progressing from set theory to quantum mechanics.

For most physical sciences graduate students, the famous Cavendish Laboratory is a centre for physics research and takes in about 75 students each year. Postgraduate programmes include physics doctorates and master’s degrees in scientific computing, nanoscience and computational methods.

4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics department is 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 degrees, and many choose to major or minor in the subject.

Doctoral studies at MIT lead to doctor of philosophy or doctor of science degrees, 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.

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 strong physics and maths backgrounds.

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.

2. Harvard University

Undergraduates at Harvard University 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 faculty.

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.

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

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What can you do with a chemistry degree?
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What can you do with a physics degree?

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Best universities for physics, chemistry and maths degrees 2024

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2024 profile

Physical sciences rank 2024	Physical sciences rank 2023	University	Country/region
1	4	California Institute of Technology	United States
2	6	Harvard University	United States
3	5	Stanford University	United States
4	=2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
5	7	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
=6	=2	University of California, Berkeley	United States
=6	1	Princeton University	United States
8	8	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
9	9	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
10	12	Yale University	United States
11	13	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
=12	10	Columbia University	United States
=12	14	National University of Singapore	Singapore
14	18	Tsinghua University	China
15	16	Peking University	China
16	11	The University of Chicago	United States
17	15	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
18	17	Cornell University	United States
19	21	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland
20	20	Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris	France
21	19	University of Washington	United States
22	23	Technical University of Munich	Germany
23	24	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
24	30	The University of Tokyo	Japan
25	22	University of Toronto	Canada
26	27	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
27	28	LMU Munich	Germany
28	29	University of Pennsylvania	United States
29	25	Fudan University	China
30	26	Institut Polytechnique de Paris	France
31	31	Johns Hopkins University	United States
32	=41	Université Paris-Saclay	France
33	37	University of Science and Technology of China	China
34	=34	Northwestern University	United States
35	45	Nanjing University	China
36	46	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
37	32	University of California, Santa Barbara	United States
38	=39	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
39	33	University of California, San Diego	United States
40	=39	University of Bonn	Germany
41	=41	UCL	United Kingdom
42	=34	Universität Heidelberg	Germany
43	38	University of Texas at Austin	United States
44	=34	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
45	48	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
46	43	New York University	United States
47	44	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
48	54	Duke University	United States
49	=49	Sorbonne University	France
50	=62	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
51	=49	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
52	53	University of British Columbia	Canada
53	51	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
54	79	Kyoto University	Japan
55	56	Australian National University	Australia
=56	52	Brown University	United States
=56	60	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
58	58	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong
59	75	Zhejiang University	China
60	78	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
61	67	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
=62	57	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
64	85	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
=65	84	University of Arizona	United States
=65	74	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=65	55	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
68	=91	RWTH Aachen University	Germany
69	101–125	Seoul National University	South Korea
70	66	Rice University	United States
71	=62	University of California, Irvine	United States
=72	77	McGill University	Canada
=72	=68	University of Melbourne	Australia
=74	71	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany
=74	80	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)	South Korea
76	=91	KU Leuven	Belgium
=77	72	University of Göttingen	Germany
79	101–125	University of Minnesota	United States
80	70	The University of Queensland	Australia
81	=89	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
=82	73	University of Groningen	Netherlands
=82	101–125	University of Sydney	Australia
=82	101–125	Texas A&M University	United States
85	88	University of California, Davis	United States
=86	100	Karlsruhe Institute of Technology	Germany
=86	65	Leiden University	Netherlands
88	=98	UNSW Sydney	Australia
89	101–125	Technical University of Berlin	Germany
=90	86	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
=90	=82	Monash University	Australia
=90	61	Université Paris Cité	France
93	=91	King’s College London	United Kingdom
94	64	Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa	Italy
95	126–150	University of Massachusetts	United States
96	=68	Wageningen University & Research	Netherlands
97	101–125	Sapienza University of Rome	Italy
98	97	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
=99	126–150	Michigan State University	United States
=99	101–125	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
101–125	94	University of Adelaide	Australia
101–125	126–150	Beijing Normal University	China
101–125	95	University of Bern	Switzerland
101–125	101–125	Boston University	United States
101–125	=98	University of California, Santa Cruz	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Copenhagen	Denmark
101–125	=89	Free University of Berlin	Germany
101–125	101–125	University of Geneva	Switzerland
101–125	126–150	Ghent University	Belgium
101–125	101–125	Université Grenoble Alpes	France
101–125	101–125	University of Hamburg	Germany
101–125	101–125	University of Helsinki	Finland
101–125	101–125	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong
101–125	126–150	KTH Royal Institute of Technology	Sweden
101–125	96	Lund University	Sweden
101–125	151–175	Nankai University	China
101–125	126–150	Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)	South Korea
101–125	176–200	Purdue University West Lafayette	United States
101–125	81	University of Reading	United Kingdom
101–125	76	Stockholm University	Sweden
101–125	101–125	Stony Brook University	United States
101–125	201–250	Tohoku University	Japan
101–125	101–125	University of Vienna	Austria
101–125	101–125	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	University of Waterloo	Canada
101–125	151–175	Wuhan University	China
101–125	151–175	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea
101–125	87	University of Zurich	Switzerland
126–150	151–175	University of Alberta	Canada
126–150	126–150	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
126–150	101–125	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
126–150	126–150	Curtin University	Australia
126–150	101–125	Durham University	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
126–150	151–175	University of Hawai’i at Mānoa	United States
126–150	47	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia
126–150	151–175	University of Liverpool	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
126–150	126–150	University of Oslo	Norway
126–150	126–150	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
126–150	151–175	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Sichuan University	China
126–150	176–200	University of Southern California	United States
126–150	101–125	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Technical University of Denmark	Denmark
126–150	151–175	TU Dresden	Germany
126–150	126–150	Uppsala University	Sweden
126–150	151–175	Xiamen University	China
151–175	126–150	Aarhus University	Denmark
151–175	151–175	University of Antwerp	Belgium
151–175	151–175	University of California, Riverside	United States
151–175	176–200	École Normale Supérieure de Lyon	France
151–175	201–250	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg	Germany
151–175	176–200	University of Florida	United States
151–175	176–200	University of Freiburg	Germany
151–175	151–175	Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz	Germany
151–175	151–175	King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals	Saudi Arabia
151–175	151–175	Université Libre de Bruxelles	Belgium
151–175	151–175	Macquarie University	Australia
151–175	151–175	University of Münster	Germany
151–175	201–250	Nagoya University	Japan
151–175	176–200	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	University of Rochester	United States
151–175	201–250	Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)	South Korea
151–175	176–200	Swinburne University of Technology	Australia
151–175	126–150	University of Technology Sydney	Australia
151–175	251–300	Tokyo Institute of Technology	Japan
151–175	126–150	Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)	South Korea
151–175	126–150	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
151–175	176–200	Washington University in St Louis	United States
151–175	151–175	The University of Western Australia	Australia
151–175	126–150	University of Wollongong	Australia
176–200	201–250	University of Barcelona	Spain
176–200	126–150	University of Basel	Switzerland
176–200	151–175	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
176–200	201–250	Chalmers University of Technology	Sweden
176–200	151–175	Colorado State University, Fort Collins	United States
176–200	201–250	Eindhoven University of Technology	Netherlands
176–200	176–200	Friedrich Schiller University Jena	Germany
176–200	201–250	Goethe University Frankfurt	Germany
176–200	401–500	Harbin Institute of Technology	China
176–200	201–250	Korea University	South Korea
176–200	201–250	Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT	Finland
176–200	201–250	North Carolina State University	United States
176–200	201–250	University of Notre Dame	United States
176–200	301–400	Osaka University	Japan
176–200	151–175	University of Potsdam	Germany
176–200	151–175	Queen Mary University of London	United Kingdom
176–200	126–150	Queen’s University Belfast	United Kingdom
176–200	126–150	Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech)	China
176–200	151–175	Sun Yat-sen University	China
176–200	176–200	Tel Aviv University	Israel
176–200	176–200	The University of Tennessee-Knoxville	United States
176–200	151–175	Trinity College Dublin	Ireland
176–200	101–125	University of Victoria	Canada
176–200	201–250	University of Würzburg	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.