Best universities for psychology degrees 2024

Top 10 universities for psychology 2024

Scroll down for the full list of best universities for psychology degrees.

Psychology Rank 2024	Psychology Rank 2023	University	Country/region
1	1	Stanford University	United States
2	3	Princeton University	United States
3	2	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
4	5	Harvard University	United States
5	6	University of California, Berkeley	United States
6	4	UCL	United Kingdom
7	7	Yale University	United States
8	9	University of Pennsylvania	United States
9	12	The University of Chicago	United States
10	19	University of Toronto	Canada

Psychology is the study of the mind and human behaviour. Psychology students will learn about emotions, what motivates us and how we interact with each other.

Many psychology graduates go on to become professional psychologists; however, a degree in psychology can also lead to careers in childcare, social work or in the legal profession. Scroll down for a full guide to what you can do with a psychology degree.

This year, Times Higher Education has released a ranking of the 621 best universities for psychology degrees.

Nearly a quarter of the universities in the overall ranking (150 universities) are in the US. The next most-represented country is the UK, with 83 universities present. Australia, Germany and Canada are also well represented, with 36, 32 and 29 universities, respectively.

The ranking uses the same methodology as the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, but with a higher weighting for citations and a lower weighting for teaching. The full methodology can be found here.

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

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The top 5 universities for psychology degrees

5. University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley’s psychology department undertakes research in areas including development, cognition, social-personality and cognitive neuroscience among others. 

The undergraduate psychology department holds regular peer adviser workshops for students to learn more about applying for postgraduate education and undertaking research projects. 

The UC Berkeley Psychology Clinic offers training to talented PhD students every year while providing psychological and clinical support to residents of the Bay Area. 

The department of psychology recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. 

4. Harvard University

Psychology is one of the most popular courses of study at undergraduate level at Harvard University.

Undergraduate students can choose one of three study tracks: the general track, which offers the greatest flexibility; the cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary psychology track; and the cognitive science track.

The graduate programme covers four major research themes: cognition, brain and behaviour; developmental psychology; social psychology; and clinical science.

3. University of Cambridge

The psychological and behavioural sciences tripos at the University of Cambridge covers teaching in cognitive, social, developmental and biological psychology within the broader context of the behavioural sciences.

Undergraduates are able to conduct laboratory work from their second year onwards to supplement their coursework and seminar learning.

As students progress through the course, there are opportunities to specialise further.

Potential study areas include statistics, neuroanatomy, neurotransmitters, neuroimaging, developmental psychology, psychopathology, cognitive psychology, language, gender, family relationships and influences, personality and group social behaviour.

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2. Princeton University

The psychology department at Princeton University has produced six Distinguished Contributions awards from the American Psychological Association, one Nobel prizewinner and three William James Fellow Awards from the Association for Psychological Science.

Graduate study is focused on systems neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, perception and cognition, personality and social psychology, and physiological psychology.

The department is closely affiliated with the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, which conducts research on neuroscience and psychological function.

1. Stanford University

The department of psychology at Stanford University was one of the first to be established at the institution.

Research is carried out in areas including addictive behaviours, psychopathology and risk, and stereotyping.

Undergraduate and postgraduate programmes are available, with the latter emphasising research training. The department is split into five research groups known as department areas, namely science, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology and social psychology.

The department has close ties with many other departments at Stanford, such as biology, law, medicine and business. There are also aims to increase participation in various interdisciplinary programmes on campus.

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What can you do with a psychology degree?

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Top universities for psychology degrees 2024

Click on each institution to view its World University Ranking 2024 profile.

Psychology Rank 2024	Psychology Rank 2023	University	Country/region
1	1	Stanford University	United States
2	3	Princeton University	United States
3	2	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
4	5	Harvard University	United States
5	6	University of California, Berkeley	United States
6	4	UCL	United Kingdom
7	7	Yale University	United States
8	9	University of Pennsylvania	United States
9	12	The University of Chicago	United States
10	19	University of Toronto	Canada
11	10	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
12	11	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
13	16	Columbia University	United States
14	15	New York University	United States
15	8	King’s College London	United Kingdom
16	13	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
17	14	University of British Columbia	Canada
18	20	KU Leuven	Belgium
19	22	University of Melbourne	Australia
=20	=23	Duke University	United States
=20	=23	Johns Hopkins University	United States
22	27	Peking University	China
23	17	LMU Munich	Germany
24	18	Northwestern University	United States
=25	=29	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
=25	=29	University of Minnesota	United States
27	=23	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
28	31	McGill University	Canada
29	21	Cornell University	United States
=30	=35	Karolinska Institute	Sweden
=30	28	The University of Queensland	Australia
32	41	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
33	37	University of Texas at Austin	United States
34	32	University of California, Davis	United States
35	34	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
36	56	University of Groningen	Netherlands
37	43	University of Zurich	Switzerland
38	52	University of California, Irvine	United States
=39	33	University of California, San Diego	United States
=39	42	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany
41	44	Vanderbilt University	United States
42	38	University of Washington	United States
43	39	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
44	51	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
45	=35	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
=46	40	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom
=46	53	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
48	=61	Brown University	United States
49	55	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
50	54	Monash University	Australia
51	=69	Ghent University	Belgium
52	58	Washington University in St Louis	United States
53	67	Maastricht University	Netherlands
=54	59	Indiana University	United States
=54	=46	University of Vienna	Austria
56	63	University of Sydney	Australia
57	=48	Boston University	United States
58	60	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
59	45	UNSW Sydney	Australia
60	66	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
61	=72	The University of Tokyo	Japan
62	71	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
63	=77	Leiden University	Netherlands
=64	=46	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
=64	=48	National University of Singapore	Singapore
66	=48	Tilburg University	Netherlands
67	101–125	Purdue University West Lafayette	United States
68	101–125	Beijing Normal University	China
69	82	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
70	80	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
71	=72	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
72	68	University of Mannheim	Germany
73	91	Universität Heidelberg	Germany
=74	57	University of California, Santa Barbara	United States
=74	76	Free University of Berlin	Germany
=74	94	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
77	88	University of Padua	Italy
78	=64	University of Rochester	United States
79	=95	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
80	=74	University of Tübingen	Germany
81	101–125	Michigan State University	United States
82	=64	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
83	87	Kyoto University	Japan
84	99	Aarhus University	Denmark
85	151–175	University of Florida	United States
86	92	University of York	United Kingdom
87	=74	Dartmouth College	United States
88	101–125	Macquarie University	Australia
89	=69	University of Kent	United Kingdom
90	90	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	United States
91	101–125	Trinity College Dublin	Ireland
=92	83	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
=92	126–150	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea
94	100	TU Dresden	Germany
=95	89	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
=95	176–200	University of Iowa	United States
=95	101–125	University of Lausanne	Switzerland
=95	126–150	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
99	98	University of Konstanz	Germany
100	101-125	Birkbeck, University of London	United Kingdom
100	101–125	University of Southern California	United States
101–125	126–150	University of Adelaide	Australia
101–125	81	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
101–125	=61	University of Auckland	New Zealand
101–125	79	Australian National University	Australia
101–125	93	University of Bath	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	University of Cologne	Germany
101–125	151–175	University of Connecticut	United States
101–125	101–125	Curtin University	Australia
101–125	101–125	Emory University	United States
101–125	=77	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	Flinders University	Australia
101–125	151–175	University of Geneva	Switzerland
101–125	151–175	University of Massachusetts	United States
101–125	86	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
101–125	101–125	University of Notre Dame	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Otago	New Zealand
101–125	85	Ruhr University Bochum	Germany
101–125	126–150	Sapienza University of Rome	Italy
101–125	101–125	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	Simon Fraser University	Canada
101–125	101–125	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	University of Sussex	United Kingdom
101–125	=95	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	University of Waterloo	Canada
101–125	84	The University of Western Australia	Australia
101–125	151–175	Western University	Canada
126–150	151–175	University of Arizona	United States
126–150	151–175	University of Barcelona	Spain
126–150	97	University of Basel	Switzerland
126–150	126–150	University of Bern	Switzerland
126–150	126–150	University of Calgary	Canada
126–150	201–250	City, University of London	United Kingdom
126–150	151–175	Durham University	United Kingdom
126–150	176–200	Florida State University	United States
126–150	101–125	University of Freiburg	Germany
126–150	151–175	University of Georgia	United States
126–150	126–150	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
126–150	201–250	University of Hamburg	Germany
126–150	201–250	University of Helsinki	Finland
126–150	126–150	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	University of Liverpool	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	University of Macau	Macao
126–150	176–200	McMaster University	Canada
126–150	126–150	University of Münster	Germany
126–150	176–200	Northeastern University, US	United States
126–150	176–200	University of Oslo	Norway
126–150	251–300	University of Ottawa	Canada
126–150	101–125	University of Potsdam	Germany
126–150	101–125	Stony Brook University	United States
126–150	126–150	York University	Canada
151–175	126–150	University of Copenhagen	Denmark
151–175	176–200	Dalhousie University	Canada
151–175	176–200	University of Denver	United States
151–175	101–125	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg	Germany
151–175	176–200	Friedrich Schiller University Jena	Germany
151–175	201–250	George Washington University	United States
151–175	176–200	Goethe University Frankfurt	Germany
151–175	126–150	Goldsmiths, University of London	United Kingdom
151–175	201–250	University of Göttingen	Germany
151–175	201–250	Griffith University	Australia
151–175	151–175	University of Jyväskylä	Finland
151–175	176–200	Korea University	South Korea
151–175	201–250	La Trobe University	Australia
151–175	151–175	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
151–175	176–200	Université Libre de Bruxelles	Belgium
151–175	151–175	Linköping University	Sweden
151–175	151–175	Mizzou - University of Missouri	United States
151–175	201–250	University of Montreal	Canada
151–175	151–175	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
151–175	201–250	Queen’s University	Canada
151–175	126–150	Royal Holloway, University of London	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	Rutgers University – New Brunswick	United States
151–175	176–200	Tel Aviv University	Israel
151–175	126–150	Ulm University	Germany
151–175	176–200	Washington State University	United States
151–175	176–200	University of Würzburg	Germany
176–200	201–250	University of Alberta	Canada
176–200	126–150	Australian Catholic University	Australia
176–200	151–175	Boston College	United States
176–200	251–300	University of California, Riverside	United States
176–200	151–175	University of California, Santa Cruz	United States
176–200	251–300	Drexel University	United States
176–200	176–200	University of Essex	United Kingdom
176–200	251–300	Université Laval	Canada
176–200	251–300	University of Limerick	Ireland
176–200	201–250	Loughborough University	United Kingdom
176–200	151–175	University of Luxembourg	Luxembourg
176–200	126–150	Maynooth University	Ireland
176–200	151–175	University of Miami	United States
176–200	251–300	University of Nebraska-Lincoln	United States
176–200	101–125	University of Neuchâtel	Switzerland
176–200	301–400	Université du Québec	Canada
176–200	176–200	University of Reading	United Kingdom
176–200	201–250	University of São Paulo	Brazil
176–200	151–175	University of Surrey	United Kingdom
176–200	201–250	Texas A&M University	United States
176–200	176–200	University of Turku	Finland
176–200	201–250	Uppsala University	Sweden
176–200	126–150	Victoria University of Wellington	New Zealand
176–200	251–300	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	United States

 

Editor's note: This table was updated in December 2023 to retroactively include Birkbeck, University of London based on their provided data submission. More information on the university's inclusion can be found here