Best universities for psychology degrees 2020

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

November 19 2019

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 494 best universities for psychology degrees. The ranking features 47 countries.

Stanford University takes first place in the 2020 ranking, followed by Princeton University. UCL is the only UK university in the top 10 (number 4) and the University of British Columbia, which rounds out the top 10, is the only Canadian institution.

More than a quarter of the universities in the overall ranking (141 universities) are US universities. The next most represented country is the UK, with 72 universities present. Australia, Germany and Canada are also well represented, with 31, 29 and 27 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
Best universities in the United States
Best universities in the UK
Best universities in Canada
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Best universities in Germany
Best universities in the Netherlands

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 at Stanford, 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. 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 Princeton Neuroscience Institute, which fosters research on neuroscience and psychological function.

Best universities by degree subject

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3. 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.

4. UCL

The UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences is the largest department of its kind in the UK, with more than 120 academic staff members 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.

What can you do with a psychology degree?

5. University of Chicago

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

Undergraduate psychology courses are centred 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 psychology students find research opportunities to fit their interests and 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.

Student experience of studying psychology

Opportunity and adventure at the Florida Institute of Technology
Using an academic learning diary
International perspective: students from Hong Kong in the UK
International perspective: an Iranian student in Poland
Going to university with cerebral palsy
Vlog: A week in the life of a student in Canada

Top universities for psychology degrees 2020

Click on each institution to view its World University Ranking 2020 profile

Psychology Rank 2020	Psychology Rank 2019	University	Country/region
1	1	Stanford University	United States
2	3	Princeton University	United States
3	5	University of Pennsylvania	United States
4	2	UCL	United Kingdom
5	4	University of Chicago	United States
6	7	Harvard University	United States
7	10	Yale University	United States
8	11	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
9	8	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
10	12	University of British Columbia	Canada
11	22	New York University	United States
12	9	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom
13	6	Duke University	United States
14	=20	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
15	13	Cornell University	United States
16	14	Northwestern University	United States
17	15	University of Washington	United States
18	16	Columbia University	United States
19	24	Karolinska Institute	Sweden
20	26	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
21	17	University of Minnesota	United States
=22	23	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
=22	18	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
=22	19	University of Toronto	Canada
=25	30	University of Texas at Austin	United States
=25	=20	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
27	29	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
28	=49	KU Leuven	Belgium
29	35	McGill University	Canada
30	27	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
31	28	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
32	NR	University of California, Davis	United States
33	37	University of Melbourne	Australia
34	38	University of Groningen	Netherlands
35	34	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
36	32	Michigan State University	United States
37	31	University of California, San Diego	United States
38	=56	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
39	48	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany
40	33	Brown University	United States
41	68	University of Sydney	Australia
42	=46	Utrecht University	Netherlands
43	42	Vanderbilt University	United States
44	78	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
45	=52	National University of Singapore	Singapore
46	36	LMU Munich	Germany
47	67	University of Queensland	Australia
48	=56	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
49	=62	University of Tübingen	Germany
50	=49	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
51	44	Tilburg University	Netherlands
52	=52	UNSW Sydney	Australia
53	43	University of Southern California	United States
54	40	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
55	39	Washington University in St Louis	United States
56	=56	University of California, Santa Barbara	United States
57	45	University of Rochester	United States
=58	83	Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Israel
=58	41	Heidelberg University	Germany
60	54	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=61	61	Australian National University	Australia
=61	=74	Ghent University	Belgium
=63	73	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=63	69	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
=65	=62	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
=65	=56	Peking University	China
67	101–125	University of Padua	Italy
68	55	Boston University	United States
69	60	Indiana University	United States
70	=74	University of Vienna	Austria
71	87	York University	Canada
=72	101–125	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
=72	=46	The University of Tokyo	Japan
74	=89	University of Sussex	United Kingdom
75	70	National Taiwan University	Taiwan
76	151–175	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
=77	=96	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
=77	82	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	United States
=79	84	Maastricht University	Netherlands
=79	88	Queen’s University	Canada
81	NR	University of Oregon	United States
82	51	Emory University	United States
83	=71	University of Kent	United Kingdom
84	101–125	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
=85	101–125	University of Bath	United Kingdom
=85	101–125	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
87	126–150	University of Western Australia	Australia
88	=89	University of Auckland	New Zealand
89	=85	Birkbeck, University of London	United Kingdom
90	101–125	University of California, Irvine	United States
91	101–125	Aarhus University	Denmark
=92	=76	Free University of Berlin	Germany
=92	NR	Goldsmiths, University of London	United Kingdom
94	101–125	Wake Forest University	United States
95	101–125	University of Zurich	Switzerland
96	126–150	University of Konstanz	Germany
97	151–175	University of Macau	Macao
98	NR	Beijing Normal University	China
99	100	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
=100	NR	University of Cologne	Germany
=100	=85	University of Mannheim	Germany
101–125	101–125	University of Cape Town	South Africa
101–125	=71	University of Connecticut	United States
101–125	126–150	University of Dundee	United Kingdom
101–125	=76	University of Florida	United States
101–125	=65	Florida State University	United States
101–125	151–175	University of Göttingen	Germany
101–125	81	University of Illinois at Chicago	United States
101–125	=98	University of Miami	United States
101–125	126–150	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
101–125	=89	Northeastern University	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Notre Dame	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	University of Otago	New Zealand
101–125	101–125	University of Potsdam	Germany
101–125	151–175	Royal Holloway, University of London	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	University of São Paulo	Brazil
101–125	101–125	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	Stockholm University	Sweden
101–125	126–150	Stony Brook University	United States
101–125	=94	TU Dresden	Germany
101–125	151–175	Victoria University of Wellington	New Zealand
101–125	101–125	University of Waterloo	Canada
101–125	201–250	William & Mary	United States
101–125	80	University of York	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	University of Alberta	Canada
126–150	126–150	University of Barcelona	Spain
126–150	=94	University of Basel	Switzerland
126–150	151–175	Boston College	United States
126–150	151–175	Dalhousie University	Canada
126–150	=62	Dartmouth College	United States
126–150	126–150	University of Freiburg	Germany
126–150	=65	University of Geneva	Switzerland
126–150	=96	University of Georgia	United States
126–150	126–150	University of Helsinki	Finland
126–150	101–125	University of Kansas	United States
126–150	93	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
126–150	176–200	Macquarie University	Australia
126–150	176–200	McMaster University	Canada
126–150	126–150	Monash University	Australia
126–150	126–150	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
126–150	176–200	Nottingham Trent University	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	Rice University	United States
126–150	151–175	Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey	United States
126–150	151–175	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Tel Aviv University	Israel
126–150	NR	Temple University	United States
126–150	126–150	University of Twente	Netherlands
126–150	176–200	University of Victoria	Canada
151–175	201–250	Aston University	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	University of Bern	Switzerland
151–175	151–175	University of Bologna	Italy
151–175	NR	University of Bonn	Germany
151–175	126–150	University of California, Riverside	United States
151–175	251–300	University of California, Santa Cruz	United States
151–175	151–175	City, University of London	United Kingdom
151–175	201–250	University of Delaware	United States
151–175	126–150	Durham University	United Kingdom
151–175	101–125	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
151–175	201–250	University of Graz	Austria
151–175	151–175	Higher School of Economics	Russian Federation
151–175	=98	University of Iowa	United States
151–175	176–200	Keele University	United Kingdom
151–175	79	Kyoto University	Japan
151–175	201–250	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
151–175	101–125	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russian Federation
151–175	NR	University of Missouri-Columbia	United States
151–175	201–250	University of North Carolina at Greensboro	United States
151–175	126–150	University of Reading	United Kingdom
151–175	176–200	Ruhr University Bochum	Germany
151–175	101–125	Simon Fraser University	Canada
151–175	126–150	University of Surrey	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	Tufts University	United States
151–175	151–175	Uppsala University	Sweden
151–175	NR	Western University	Canada
151–175	126–150	University of Würzburg	Germany
176–200	101–125	University of Aberdeen	United Kingdom
176–200	251–300	University of Adelaide	Australia
176–200	151–175	Auburn University	United States
176–200	201–250	Australian Catholic University	Australia
176–200	176–200	Bangor University	United Kingdom
176–200	151–175	University of Bergen	Norway
176–200	251–300	Case Western Reserve University	United States
176–200	151–175	Coventry University	United Kingdom
176–200	201–250	University of Cyprus	Cyprus
176–200	176–200	Florida International University	United States
176–200	201–250	University of Fribourg	Switzerland
176–200	176–200	Iowa State University	United States
176–200	151–175	University of Jyväskylä	Finland
176–200	151–175	Korea University	South Korea
176–200	201–250	La Trobe University	Australia
176–200	126–150	University of Luxembourg	Luxembourg
176–200	176–200	University of Münster	Germany
176–200	201–250	National Taiwan Normal University	Taiwan
176–200	301–400	University of Nebraska-Lincoln	United States
176–200	126–150	North Carolina State University	United States
176–200	NR	University of Paris	France
176–200	151–175	Sapienza University of Rome	Italy
176–200	151–175	University of South Florida (Tampa)	United States
176–200	NR	Tampere University	Finland