Best universities for psychology degrees 2019

Find the best colleges for psychology using Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings data

November 7 2018

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

Many psychology graduates will go on to careers as 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 463 best universities for psychology degrees. The ranking features 47 countries.

Stanford University takes first place in the 2019 ranking, followed by UCL, one of two UK universities in the top 10 (London School of Economics and Political Science is at number 9).

More than a quarter of the universities in the overall ranking (136 universities) are US universities. The next most represented country is the UK, with 69 universities present. Australia, Germany and Canada are also well represented, with 28, 26 and 24 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.

Best universities worldwide

Best universities in the world
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The top 5 universities for psychology degrees

1. Stanford University

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

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

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

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

2. UCL

The UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences is the largest department of its kind in the country, with more than 120 academic staff and approximately 1,500 students.

The undergraduate programme at UCL is accredited by the British Psychological Society and graduates are eligible to become members.

As well as undergraduate courses, the department offers 20 master’s degrees in topics including business psychology, neuroscience, decision science and human-computer interaction.

Best universities by degree subject

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3. Princeton University

The psychology department at Princeton University has produced one Nobel prizewinner, six Distinguished Contributions awards from the American Psychological Association 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. This is viewed as a preparatory programme for a PhD.

The department is closely affiliated with the Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and Behaviour, which fosters research on neuroscience and psychological function.

4. University of Chicago

The University of Chicago's Department of Psychology was founded in 1893.

Undergraduate courses are centered around faculty-taught courses and research opportunities, which makes it one of the most popular majors at the university. The Undergraduate Research Initiative is a programme that aims to help students find research opportunities to fit their interests and will prepare them for future careers. The initiative includes a series of workshops, informational sessions, and career development events throughout the year to help students make the most of the many opportunities and research-related events available on campus and beyond.

The PhD programmes are also popular and students can choose between four research areas to focus their work on: cognition, developmental psychology, integrative neuroscience or social psychology.

What can you do with a psychology degree?

5. University of Pennsylvania

The Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania is the oldest continuously functioning psychology department in North America.

One of the courses offered within the department at undergraduate level is “The Pursuit of Happiness”, which aims to explore the theoretical, scientific and practical aspects of well-being and how students can use these methods to increase their own feelings of happiness.

Graduate research groups are split into two areas: brain, cognitive and decision science and clinical, positive and social psychology.

Student experience of studying psychology

Opportunity and adventure at the Florida Institute of Technology
University mental health: taking student well-being seriously
Using an academic learning diary

Top universities for psychology degrees 2019

Click on each institution to view its World University Ranking 2019 profile

Psychology Rank 2019	Psychology Rank 2018	University	Country/Region
1	1	Stanford University	United States
2	2	UCL	United Kingdom
3	3	Princeton University	United States
4	NR	University of Chicago	United States
5	NR	University of Pennsylvania	United States
6	5	Duke University	United States
7	4	Harvard University	United States
8	8	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
9	NR	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom
10	4	Yale University	United States
11	7	University of Michigan	United States
12	10	University of British Columbia	Canada
13	NR	Cornell University	United States
14	6	Northwestern University	United States
15	16	University of Washington	United States
16	15	Columbia University	United States
17	17	University of Minnesota Twin Cities	United States
18	20	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
19	13	University of Toronto	Canada
=20	14	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
=20	12	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
22	18	New York University	United States
23	9	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
24	19	Karolinska Institute	Sweden
25	NR	Johns Hopkins University	United States
26	30	University of Virginia	United States
27	26	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
28	28	Ohio State University	United States
29	NR	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
30	46	University of Texas at Austin	United States
31	11	University of California, San Diego	United States
32	24	Michigan State University	United States
33	35	Brown University	United States
34	23	Pennsylvania State University	United States
35	=32	McGill University	Canada
36	34	LMU Munich	Germany
37	=32	University of Melbourne	Australia
38	29	University of Groningen	Netherlands
39	25	Washington University in St Louis	United States
40	73	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
41	48	Heidelberg University	Germany
42	21	Vanderbilt University	United States
43	38	University of Southern California	United States
44	54	Tilburg University	Netherlands
45	27	University of Rochester	United States
=46	NR	The University of Tokyo	Japan
=46	=52	Utrecht University	Netherlands
48	41	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany
=49	82	Arizona State University	United States
=49	36	KU Leuven	Belgium
51	61	Emory University	United States
=52	55	National University of Singapore	Singapore
=52	39	University of New South Wales	Australia
54	49	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
55	47	Boston University	United States
=56	22	University of California, Santa Barbara	United States
=56	51	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
=56	43	Peking University	China
=56	=58	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
60	=44	Indiana University	United States
61	=62	Australian National University	Australia
=62	101+	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
=62	=58	Dartmouth College	United States
=62	86	University of Tübingen	Germany
=65	57	Florida State University	United States
=65	=80	University of Geneva	Switzerland
67	50	University of Queensland	Australia
68	=65	University of Sydney	Australia
69	42	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
70	101+	National Taiwan University	Taiwan
=71	67	University of Connecticut	United States
=71	84	University of Kent	United Kingdom
73	=76	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=74	40	Ghent University	Belgium
=74	101+	University of Vienna	Austria
=76	=69	University of Florida	United States
=76	31	Free University of Berlin	Germany
78	56	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
79	NR	Kyoto University	Japan
80	37	University of York	United Kingdom
81	83	University of Illinois at Chicago	United States
82	98	University of Pittsburgh	United States
83	=76	Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Israel
84	64	Maastricht University	Netherlands
=85	68	Birkbeck, University of London	United Kingdom
=85	=90	University of Mannheim	Germany
87	101+	York University	Canada
88	101+	Queen’s University	Canada
=89	95	University of Auckland	New Zealand
=89	101+	Northeastern University	United States
=89	79	University of Sussex	United Kingdom
92	=96	University of Arizona	United States
93	101+	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
=94	=93	University of Basel	Switzerland
=94	101+	TU Dresden	Germany
=96	=65	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
=96	89	University of Georgia	United States
=98	74	University of Iowa	United States
=98	101+	University of Miami	United States
100	NR	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
101–125	101+	Aarhus University	Denmark
101–125	101+	University of Aberdeen	United Kingdom
101–125	99	University of Alberta	Canada
101–125	101+	University of Bath	United Kingdom
101–125	=44	University of California, Irvine	United States
101–125	NR	University of Cape Town	South Africa
101–125	101+	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
101–125	=58	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
101–125	NR	University of Kansas	United States
101–125	101+	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russian Federation
101–125	101+	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
101–125	101+	University of Notre Dame	United States
101–125	101+	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
101–125	101+	University of Otago	New Zealand
101–125	101+	University of Padua	Italy
101–125	101+	University of Potsdam	Germany
101–125	=69	Rice University	United States
101–125	101+	University of São Paulo	Brazil
101–125	=69	Simon Fraser University	Canada
101–125	=52	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
101–125	101+	Stockholm University	Sweden
101–125	101+	Wake Forest University	United States
101–125	=62	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
101–125	101+	University of Waterloo	Canada
101–125	72	University of Zurich	Switzerland
126–150	101+	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
126–150	101+	University of Barcelona	Spain
126–150	78	University of Bern	Switzerland
126–150	85	University of California, Riverside	United States
126–150	101+	University of Dundee	United Kingdom
126–150	101+	Durham University	United Kingdom
126–150	75	University of Freiburg	Germany
126–150	=90	University of Helsinki	Finland
126–150	101+	University of Konstanz	Germany
126–150	101+	University of Luxembourg	Luxembourg
126–150	101+	Monash University	Australia
126–150	101+	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
126–150	101+	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
126–150	101+	North Carolina State University	United States
126–150	101+	Pontifical Catholic University of Chile	Chile
126–150	101+	University of Reading	United Kingdom
126–150	=93	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
126–150	101+	Stony Brook University	United States
126–150	101+	University of Surrey	United Kingdom
126–150	101+	Tel Aviv University	Israel
126–150	=96	Texas A&M University	United States
126–150	101+	Tufts University	United States
126–150	101+	University of Twente	Netherlands
126–150	101+	University of Western Australia	Australia
126–150	88	University of Würzburg	Germany
151–175	101+	Auburn University	United States
151–175	101+	Bar-Ilan University	Israel
151–175	101+	University of Bergen	Norway
151–175	101+	University of Bologna	Italy
151–175	101+	Boston College	United States
151–175	100	City, University of London	United Kingdom
151–175	101+	Complutense University of Madrid	Spain
151–175	101+	Coventry University	United Kingdom
151–175	101+	Dalhousie University	Canada
151–175	NR	Fordham University	United States
151–175	101+	University of Göttingen	Germany
151–175	NR	Higher School of Economics	Russian Federation
151–175	101+	University of Jyväskylä	Finland
151–175	101+	Korea University	South Korea
151–175	101+	University of Macau	Macao
151–175	101+	University of Montreal	Canada
151–175	101+	Royal Holloway, University of London	United Kingdom
151–175	101+	Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey	United States
151–175	101+	Sapienza University of Rome	Italy
151–175	101+	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
151–175	101+	University of South Florida	United States
151–175	92	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
151–175	101+	Uppsala University	Sweden
151–175	101+	University of Vermont	United States
151–175	101+	Victoria University of Wellington	New Zealand
176–200	101+	Aalborg University	Denmark
176–200	101+	Autonomous University of Madrid	Spain
176–200	101+	Bangor University	United Kingdom
176–200	101+	University of Canterbury	New Zealand
176–200	101+	Colorado State University	United States
176–200	101+	Flinders University	Australia
176–200	101+	Florida International University	United States
176–200	101+	Georgia State University	United States
176–200	NR	Goethe University Frankfurt	Germany
176–200	101+	University of Hamburg	Germany
176–200	101+	Iowa State University	United States
176–200	101+	Keele University	United Kingdom
176–200	101+	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia
176–200	101+	Kyushu University	Japan
176–200	101+	Lehigh University	United States
176–200	101+	Macquarie University	Australia
176–200	101+	McMaster University	Canada
176–200	101+	University of Münster	Germany
176–200	101+	Nottingham Trent University	United Kingdom
176–200	101+	University of Pavia	Italy
176–200	101+	Ruhr University Bochum	Germany
176–200	NR	University of South Alabama	United States
176–200	101+	University of South Australia	Australia
176–200	101+	University of Valencia	Spain
176–200	NR	University of Victoria	Canada
176–200	101+	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea