Best universities for psychology degrees

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

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Rankings for Students

October 28 2020

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

Stanford University takes first place in the 2021 ranking, followed by Princeton University. UCL is the only UK university in the top 10 (number 3).

More than a quarter of the universities in the overall ranking (153 universities) are US universities. The next most represented country is the UK, with 74 universities present. Australia, Germany and Canada are also well represented, with 34, 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
Best universities in Australia
Best universities in Europe
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 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

Best universities for arts and humanities
Best universities for business and economics
Best universities for clinical, pre-clinical and health
Best universities for computer science
Best universities for life sciences
Best universities for physical sciences
Best universities for social sciences
Best universities for law degrees
Best universities for education degrees
Best universities for engineering degrees

3. 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.

4. 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 department offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes across a number of different areas, while providing the opportunity to focus on the areas students find most interesting.

What can you do with a psychology degree?

5. The University of Chicago

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

Undergraduate psychology courses are centred around 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: 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 2021

Click on each institution to view its World University Ranking 2021 profile

Psychology Rank 2021	Psychology Rank 2020	University	Country/region
1	1	Stanford University	United States
2	2	Princeton University	United States
3	4	UCL	United Kingdom
4	NR	University of California, Berkeley	United States
5	5	The University of Chicago	United States
6	6	Harvard University	United States
7	7	Yale University	United States
8	3	University of Pennsylvania	United States
9	8	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
10	9	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
11	NR	King’s College London	United Kingdom
12	14	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
=13	10	University of British Columbia	Canada
=13	16	North Western University	United States
15	11	New York University	United States
16	=22	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
=17	=22	Carnegie Mellon University	United States
=17	28	KU Leuven	Belgium
=17	12	London School of Economics and Political Science	United Kingdom
20	13	Duke University	United States
=21	18	Columbia University	United States
=21	=22	University of Toronto	Canada
23	33	University of Melbourne	Australia
24	15	Cornell University	United States
25	27	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
26	17	University of Washington	United States
27	=25	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
28	20	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
29	21	University of Minnesota	United States
30	=25	University of Texas at Austin	United States
31	41	University of Sydney	Australia
32	19	Karolinska Institute	Sweden
33	36	Michigan State University	United States
34	52	UNSW Sydney	Australia
35	29	McGill University	Canada
36	37	University of California, San Diego	United States
37	31	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
38	44	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
39	42	Utrecht University	Netherlands
40	34	University of Groningen	Netherlands
=41	35	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
=41	43	Vanderbilt University	United States
=41	38	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
44	46	LMU Munich	Germany
45	NR	Johns Hopkins University	United States
46	32	University of California, Davis	United States
47	90	University of California, Irvine	United States
48	39	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany
49	30	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
50	51	Tilburg University	Netherlands
51	=61	Ghent University	Belgium
=52	=72	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
=52	47	The University of Queensland	Australia
54	68	Boston University	United States
55	40	Brown University	United States
56	60	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
57	45	National University of Singapore	Singapore
58	55	Washington University in St Louis	United States
59	83	University of Kent	United Kingdom
60	=100	University of Mannheim	Germany
61	50	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
62	56	University of California, Santa Barbara	United States
63	57	University of Rochester	United States
64	95	University of Zurich	Switzerland
=65	=58	Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Israel
=65	49	University of Tübingen	Germany
67	=61	Australian National University	Australia
=68	48	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
=68	=63	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
70	91	Aarhus University	Denmark
71	=63	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
72	67	University of Padua	Italy
73	=79	Maastricht University	Netherlands
74	70	University of Vienna	Austria
75	=58	Heidelberg University	Germany
76	53	University of Southern California	United States
77	NR	Leiden University	Netherlands
78	101–125	University of Waterloo	Canada
79	=92	Free University of Berlin	Germany
80	=65	Peking University	China
=81	74	University of Sussex	United Kingdom
=81	=72	The University of Tokyo	Japan
83	126–150	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
84	54	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
85	76	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
=86	=85	University of Bath	United Kingdom
=86	=85	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
88	=79	Queen’s University	Canada
89	101–125	University of Potsdam	Germany
90	96	University of Konstanz	Germany
91	87	The University of Western Australia	Australia
=92	82	Emory University	United States
=92	99	Georgia Institute of Technology	United States
94	=77	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	United States
95	89	Birkbeck, University of London	United Kingdom
=96	=77	University of Colorado Boulder	United States
=96	126–150	Tel Aviv University	Israel
=98	126–150	University of Barcelona	Spain
=98	151–175	Lancaster University	United Kingdom
100	101–125	TU Dresden	Germany
101–125	NR	University of Arizona	United States
101–125	88	University of Auckland	New Zealand
101–125	=65	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
101–125	=100	University of Cologne	Germany
101–125	126–150	Dartmouth College	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Dundee	United Kingdom
101–125	151–175	Durham University	United Kingdom
101–125	84	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
101–125	151–175	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	University of Göttingen	Germany
101–125	126–150	University of Helsinki	Finland
101–125	126–150	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
101–125	97	University of Macau	Macao
101–125	126–150	Macquarie University	Australia
101–125	101–125	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
101–125	101–125	University of Notre Dame	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	Nottingham Trent University	United Kingdom
101–125	81	University of Oregon	United States
101–125	126–150	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	University of Twente	Netherlands
101–125	126–150	University of Victoria	Canada
101–125	101–125	Victoria University of Wellington	New Zealand
101–125	101–125	University of York	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	University of Alberta	Canada
126–150	151–175	Aston University	United Kingdom
126–150	201–250	Autonomous University of Madrid	Spain
126–150	98	Beijing Normal University	China
126–150	151–175	University of Bologna	Italy
126–150	151–175	University of Bonn	Germany
126–150	151–175	University of California, Riverside	United States
126–150	151–175	University of California, Santa Cruz	United States
126–150	176–200	University of Cyprus	Cyprus
126–150	126–150	Dalhousie University	Canada
126–150	151–175	University of Delaware	United States
126–150	101–125	University of Florida	United States
126–150	126–150	University of Freiburg	Germany
126–150	251–300	George Mason University	United States
126–150	101–125	University of Illinois at Chicago	United States
126–150	151–175	Keele University	United Kingdom
126–150	151–175	Kyoto University	Japan
126–150	151–175	Mizzou - University of Missouri	United States
126–150	126–150	Monash University	Australia
126–150	126–150	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	Northeastern University	United States
126–150	101–125	University of Otago	New Zealand
126–150	126–150	Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey	United States
126–150	101–125	Stockholm University	Sweden
126–150	94	Wake Forest University	United States
126–150	71	York University	Canada
151–175	251–300	Aalborg University	Denmark
151–175	201–250	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
151–175	126–150	University of Basel	Switzerland
151–175	151–175	University of Bern	Switzerland
151–175	151–175	City, University of London	United Kingdom
151–175	101–125	University of Connecticut	United States
151–175	201–250	Curtin University	Australia
151–175	201–250	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg	Germany
151–175	101–125	Florida State University	United States
151–175	176–200	Iowa State University	United States
151–175	126–150	University of Kansas	United States
151–175	176–200	Korea University	South Korea
151–175	176–200	University of Luxembourg	Luxembourg
151–175	126–150	McMaster University	Canada
151–175	75	National Taiwan University (NTU)	Taiwan
151–175	201–250	University of Neuchâtel	Switzerland
151–175	151–175	University of Reading	United Kingdom
151–175	101–125	Royal Holloway, University of London	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	Ruhr University Bochum	Germany
151–175	176–200	Sapienza University of Rome	Italy
151–175	151–175	Simon Fraser University	Canada
151–175	101–125	Stony Brook University	United States
151–175	151–175	University of Surrey	United Kingdom
151–175	201–250	Western Sydney University	Australia
176–200	176–200	Australian Catholic University	Australia
176–200	126–150	Boston College	United States
176–200	101–125	University of Cape Town	South Africa
176–200	176–200	Coventry University	United Kingdom
176–200	201–250	Drexel University	United States
176–200	201–250	University of East Anglia	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	University of Fribourg	Switzerland
176–200	NR	Friedrich Schiller University Jena	Germany
176–200	=92	Goldsmiths, University of London	United Kingdom
176–200	151–175	University of Graz	Austria
176–200	151–175	HSE University	Russian Federation
176–200	151–175	University of Iowa	United States
176–200	201–250	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
176–200	201–250	University of Massachusetts	United States
176–200	101–125	University of Miami	United States
176–200	201–250	University of Montreal	Canada
176–200	176–200	University of Münster	Germany
176–200	201–250	University of Oslo	Norway
176–200	251–300	University of Portsmouth	United Kingdom
176–200	126–150	Rice University	United States
176–200	201–250	University of Stirling	United Kingdom
176–200	126–150	Temple University	United States
176–200	201–250	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	United States
176–200	151–175	Western University	Canada
176–200	151–175	University of Würzburg	Germany