Top 10 universities in the world for social sciences 2024
Scroll down for the full list of best universities in the world for social science degrees.
The social sciences include a range of subjects, from international relations to politics to geography.
Graduates of social science degrees go on to pursue a wide range of careers in the public and private sectors.
Times Higher Education has published the 2024 ranking of the 997 best schools for social sciences across the world.
A sixth of the list is made up of US universities – 155 institutions in total. UK universities take 95 of the remaining spots, while Australia, China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan are also represented.
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Three UK institutions are in the top 10 (the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and the London School of Economics and Political Science), while the rest of the top 10 is dominated by US universities.
The social sciences ranking uses the same methodology as the World University Rankings, but with less weight given to citations and more to research and teaching metrics. 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.
Top 5 universities for social sciences
There are both undergraduate and graduate degree programmes available in the social sciences at Princeton University. Students can choose to study courses from a range of disciplines such as American studies, economics, European cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, and health policy.
Princeton has a number of institutes, centres and schools that facilitate research into society and politics, including the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the Kahneman-Treisman Center for Behavioral Science and Public Policy.
Social sciences at Harvard University are taught through interdisciplinary programmes. Fields of study include economics, government, law, sociology, gender studies and psychology.
For all these subjects, both undergraduates and postgraduates are expected to conduct empirical research and analyse data. Senior thesis projects can involve qualitative or quantitative research methods, or both.
The Regan Fund at the university is used to invite famous speakers to Harvard to deliver lectures on economics, government and social problems around the world. These lectures are primarily aimed at undergraduates.
The social sciences division has relationships with a number of museums and research centres, including the Harvard-MIT Data Center and the Institute for Quantitative Social Science.
Perhaps the most famous social sciences degree at the University of Oxford is philosophy, politics and economics (PPE). The social sciences division also tackles issues such as environmental change, poverty, cybercrime, political turmoil, social inequality and immigration.
A number of influential politicians and public figures have earned an Oxford PPE degree, including a significant number of British prime ministers. Nobel Peace Prize winner and advocate for women’s education Malala Yousafzai recently completed a PPE degree at the institution.
Much of the social science research at Oxford is aimed at influencing policy in the UK and around the world.
Particular research strengths include big data, future cities, resource management and global economic performance.
Aside from PPE, undergraduate courses within the division include geography, archaeology and anthropology, and law and human sciences.
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The social sciences department at Stanford University offers anthropology, communication, economics, law, political science, psychology and sociology courses. Many programmes are interdisciplinary, including ethics in society; democracy, development and the rule of law; and urban studies.
In political science classes, undergraduates study US politics and international political systems and relate them to conflict, social activism, ideology and race issues.
The curriculum covers five subject areas: US politics, comparative politics, international relations, political methodology, and political theory.
The department of anthropology is known for an innovative approach that insists that the subject must be studied in relation to contemporary affairs.
Students learn research methods and theory to carry them through the course of their choice.
The School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers a wide selection of subjects, including politics and women’s and gender studies.
The school’s roots lie in the university’s founding, when courses in psychology and political science were taught.
The school produces a magazine called Said and Done, which highlights research undertaken within the faculty.
All students at MIT are expected to take social science classes to help them solve “some of the world’s most challenging problems”.
Current faculty members include four Nobel laureates, seven MacArthur fellows and five Pulitzer prizewinners.
Best universities for social sciences degrees in the UK
Best universities for social sciences degrees in the US
Best universities for social sciences degrees in Canada
Best universities for social sciences degrees in Australia
Best universities for social science degrees 2024
Click each institution to view its World University Ranking 2024 profile.
Social science rank 2024 | Social science rank 2023 | University | Country/region |
=1 | 1 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | United States |
=1 | 2 | Stanford University | United States |
3 | 3 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom |
4 | 4 | Harvard University | United States |
5 | 6 | Princeton University | United States |
6 | 7 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom |
7 | 5 | University of California, Berkeley | United States |
8 | 8 | London School of Economics and Political Science | United Kingdom |
9 | 9 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | United States |
10 | 10 | Yale University | United States |
11 | =12 | The University of Chicago | United States |
12 | 15 | Columbia University | United States |
13 | =12 | University of Pennsylvania | United States |
14 | 14 | UCL | United Kingdom |
15 | 11 | University of California, Los Angeles | United States |
16 | 17 | National University of Singapore | Singapore |
17 | 22 | Peking University | China |
=18 | 16 | University of Amsterdam | Netherlands |
=18 | =23 | Johns Hopkins University | United States |
20 | 20 | Cornell University | United States |
21 | 21 | Tsinghua University | China |
22 | 18 | University of Washington | United States |
23 | 25 | New York University | United States |
24 | =26 | University of Toronto | Canada |
=25 | 19 | ETH Zurich | Switzerland |
=25 | 30 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | United States |
27 | 32 | University of British Columbia | Canada |
28 | 31 | University of Manchester | United Kingdom |
29 | =23 | Duke University | United States |
30 | 29 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | United States |
=31 | 33 | Australian National University | Australia |
=31 | 28 | Northwestern University | United States |
33 | 44 | King’s College London | United Kingdom |
34 | 34 | University of Texas at Austin | United States |
35 | 37 | University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong |
36 | 35 | Free University of Berlin | Germany |
37 | 55 | Leiden University | Netherlands |
=38 | 38 | University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom |
=38 | =42 | McGill University | Canada |
=40 | 49 | KU Leuven | Belgium |
=40 | 56 | The University of Tokyo | Japan |
=42 | 46 | Humboldt University of Berlin | Germany |
=42 | =42 | University of Southern California | United States |
44 | =51 | Wageningen University & Research | Netherlands |
45 | =40 | University of Vienna | Austria |
46 | 47 | Aarhus University | Denmark |
47 | =53 | Ohio State University (Main campus) | United States |
48 | 45 | University of California, San Diego | United States |
=49 | 48 | University of Groningen | Netherlands |
=49 | =53 | Nanyang Technological University, Singapore | Singapore |
51 | 84 | University of Sydney | Australia |
52 | 72 | University of Sheffield | United Kingdom |
53 | =60 | Lund University | Sweden |
54 | 36 | University of Mannheim | Germany |
55 | 58 | Indiana University | United States |
56 | 50 | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | United States |
57 | 59 | University of Copenhagen | Denmark |
58 | =60 | Chinese University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong |
59 | =40 | University of Melbourne | Australia |
60 | 82 | Carnegie Mellon University | United States |
=61 | =65 | Delft University of Technology | Netherlands |
=61 | 64 | LMU Munich | Germany |
=61 | =60 | University of Oslo | Norway |
=61 | 57 | University of Zurich | Switzerland |
65 | =51 | Arizona State University (Tempe) | United States |
66 | 39 | Sciences Po | France |
67 | 69 | Brown University | United States |
68 | 74 | University of Sussex | United Kingdom |
=69 | 76 | University of Leeds | United Kingdom |
=69 | =60 | University of Maryland, College Park | United States |
71 | 78 | University of Minnesota | United States |
72 | 81 | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | Netherlands |
73 | 86 | Georgetown University | United States |
74 | =65 | University of Essex | United Kingdom |
=75 | 85 | Kyoto University | Japan |
=75 | 83 | Monash University | Australia |
=77 | 71 | University of California, Santa Barbara | United States |
=77 | 77 | The University of Queensland | Australia |
79 | 67 | Erasmus University Rotterdam | Netherlands |
80 | 68 | Hong Kong Polytechnic University | Hong Kong |
81 | =91 | Durham University | United Kingdom |
82 | 73 | Washington University in St Louis | United States |
83 | 80 | University of Warwick | United Kingdom |
84 | =91 | Penn State (Main campus) | United States |
85 | 101–125 | Autonomous University of Barcelona | Spain |
86 | 70 | Michigan State University | United States |
87 | 75 | Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris | France |
88 | 89 | University of Twente | Netherlands |
=89 | =96 | University of California, Davis | United States |
=89 | 88 | Stockholm University | Sweden |
91 | 90 | University of Helsinki | Finland |
92 | =94 | University of Arizona | United States |
=93 | 87 | University of California, Irvine | United States |
=93 | 101–125 | Uppsala University | Sweden |
95 | 79 | University of Konstanz | Germany |
96 | 101–125 | Yonsei University (Seoul campus) | South Korea |
97 | =94 | Loughborough University | United Kingdom |
=98 | 100 | City University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong |
=98 | 101–125 | University of Southampton | United Kingdom |
=100 | 101–125 | University of Cape Town | South Africa |
=100 | 101–125 | UNSW Sydney | Australia |
101–125 | 151–175 | University of Barcelona | Spain |
101–125 | 101–125 | University of Bern | Switzerland |
101–125 | 101–125 | Boston University | United States |
101–125 | 101–125 | University of Bristol | United Kingdom |
101–125 | 101–125 | Emory University | United States |
101–125 | 101–125 | University of Florida | United States |
101–125 | 126–150 | Fudan University | China |
101–125 | 126–150 | George Washington University | United States |
101–125 | 101–125 | University of Glasgow | United Kingdom |
101–125 | 101–125 | University of Gothenburg | Sweden |
101–125 | 101–125 | The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology | Hong Kong |
101–125 | 93 | Lancaster University | United Kingdom |
101–125 | 101–125 | University of Massachusetts | United States |
101–125 | 126–150 | University of Montreal | Canada |
101–125 | 126–150 | University of Notre Dame | United States |
101–125 | 126–150 | Purdue University West Lafayette | United States |
101–125 | 101–125 | Queensland University of Technology | Australia |
101–125 | 176–200 | University of São Paulo | Brazil |
101–125 | 101–125 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | China |
101–125 | 176–200 | Sorbonne University | France |
101–125 | 98 | University of Surrey | United Kingdom |
101–125 | 101–125 | Texas A&M University | United States |
101–125 | =96 | Vanderbilt University | United States |
101–125 | 126–150 | Vrije Universiteit Brussel | Belgium |
101–125 | 126–150 | Zhejiang University | China |
126–150 | 101–125 | University of Antwerp | Belgium |
126–150 | 99 | University of Auckland | New Zealand |
126–150 | 151–175 | University of Birmingham | United Kingdom |
126–150 | 151–175 | University of Bologna | Italy |
126–150 | 126–150 | Cardiff University | United Kingdom |
126–150 | 101–125 | Copenhagen Business School | Denmark |
126–150 | 101–125 | University of Exeter | United Kingdom |
126–150 | 126–150 | Florida State University | United States |
126–150 | 151–175 | University of Georgia | United States |
126–150 | 101–125 | Georgia Institute of Technology | United States |
126–150 | 101–125 | Ghent University | Belgium |
126–150 | 201–250 | Goethe University Frankfurt | Germany |
126–150 | 101–125 | HSE University | Russian Federation |
126–150 | 126–150 | University of Lausanne | Switzerland |
126–150 | 176–200 | Nanjing University | China |
126–150 | 126–150 | Newcastle University | United Kingdom |
126–150 | 151–175 | University of Nottingham | United Kingdom |
126–150 | 201–250 | Université Paris-Saclay | France |
126–150 | 126–150 | Seoul National University | South Korea |
126–150 | 126–150 | Simon Fraser University | Canada |
126–150 | 126–150 | SOAS University of London | United Kingdom |
126–150 | 151–175 | Sun Yat-sen University | China |
126–150 | 126–150 | Syracuse University | United States |
126–150 | 126–150 | Technical University of Berlin | Germany |
126–150 | 126–150 | University of York | United Kingdom |
151–175 | 151–175 | University of Alberta | Canada |
151–175 | 151–175 | University of Bath | United Kingdom |
151-175 | 176-200 | Birkbeck, University of London | United Kingdom |
151–175 | 126–150 | Boston College | United States |
151–175 | 151–175 | University of Bremen | Germany |
151–175 | 151–175 | University of California, Santa Cruz | United States |
151–175 | 176–200 | Université Catholique de Louvain | Belgium |
151–175 | 151–175 | City, University of London | United Kingdom |
151–175 | 176–200 | University of Cologne | Germany |
151–175 | 126–150 | University of Colorado Boulder | United States |
151–175 | 126–150 | Dartmouth College | United States |
151–175 | 251–300 | Drexel University | United States |
151–175 | 176–200 | Griffith University | Australia |
151–175 | 201–250 | Lomonosov Moscow State University | Russian Federation |
151–175 | 201–250 | Maastricht University | Netherlands |
151–175 | 126–150 | Northeastern University, US | United States |
151–175 | 151–175 | Pompeu Fabra University | Spain |
151–175 | NR | University of Rochester | United States |
151–175 | 201–250 | University of Technology Sydney | Australia |
151–175 | 126–150 | Tilburg University | Netherlands |
151–175 | 151–175 | Trinity College Dublin | Ireland |
151–175 | 151–175 | University College Dublin | Ireland |
151–175 | 126–150 | University of Waterloo | Canada |
151–175 | 176–200 | University of the Witwatersrand | South Africa |
151–175 | 301–400 | Wuhan University | China |
176–200 | 251–300 | Aalborg University | Denmark |
176–200 | 176–200 | University of Aberdeen | United Kingdom |
176–200 | 176–200 | Beijing Normal University | China |
176–200 | 201–250 | Dublin City University | Ireland |
176–200 | 126–150 | University of East Anglia | United Kingdom |
176–200 | 126–150 | École des Ponts ParisTech | France |
176–200 | 176–200 | University of Freiburg | Germany |
176–200 | 151–175 | Friedrich Schiller University Jena | Germany |
176–200 | 176–200 | George Mason University | United States |
176–200 | 126–150 | Goldsmiths, University of London | United Kingdom |
176–200 | 176–200 | Koç University | Turkey |
176–200 | 126–150 | Macquarie University | Australia |
176–200 | 176–200 | North Carolina State University | United States |
176–200 | 201–250 | University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus | United States |
176–200 | NR | University of Potsdam | Germany |
176–200 | 151–175 | Radboud University Nijmegen | Netherlands |
176–200 | 151–175 | University of Reading | United Kingdom |
176–200 | 201–250 | RMIT University | Australia |
176–200 | 101–125 | Rutgers University – New Brunswick | United States |
176–200 | 176–200 | Sabancı University | Turkey |
176–200 | 151–175 | Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa | Italy |
176–200 | 151–175 | University of St Andrews | United Kingdom |
176–200 | 176–200 | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | United States |
176–200 | 201–250 | University of Waikato | New Zealand |
176–200 | 251–300 | Western University | Canada |
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
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Find the best colleges for social sciences using Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2024 data
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