The 2014-2015 Times Higher Education World University Rankings' Physical Sciences table judges world class universities across all of their core missions - teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. The ranking of the world's top 100 universities for physical sciences employs 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons available, which are trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments.

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Top 100 universities for physical sciences 2014-2015

Rank Institution Location Overall score
1 Princeton University United States
93.1
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) United States
92.6
3 Harvard University United States
92.3
4 California Institute of Technology (Caltech) United States
92.0
4 Stanford University United States
92.0
6 University of Cambridge United Kingdom
90.4
7 University of Oxford United Kingdom
88.6
8 University of Chicago United States
87.0
9 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) United States
86.8
10 University of California, Berkeley United States
86.4
11 ETH Zürich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich Switzerland
85.2
12 Imperial College London United Kingdom
85.1
13 Yale University United States
84.7
14 Columbia University United States
82.8
15 Cornell University United States
81.1
16 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Germany
76.8
17 University of Washington United States
76.2
18
The University of Tokyo
Japan
75.6
19
University of Toronto
Canada
75.3
20 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland
73.3
21 University of Wisconsin-Madison United States
72.6
22 University of Michigan United States
72.2
23 University of Texas at Austin United States
72.0
24 University of California, Santa Barbara United States
71.6
25 École Normale Supérieure France
71.4
26 Northwestern University United States
71.2
27 University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign United States
70.6
28 Australian National University Australia
69.7
29 Université Pierre et Marie Curie France
69.3
30 University of Melbourne Australia
69.2
31 École Polytechnique France
68.8
32 Rice University United States
67.3
32 Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Germany
67.3
34 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom
66.4
35
University of British Columbia
Canada
66.0
35 University of Colorado Boulder United States
66.0
37 Peking University China
65.6
38 University College London (UCL) United Kingdom
64.0
38 Kyoto University Japan
64.0
40 Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa Italy
63.9
41
National University of Singapore (NUS)
Singapore
63.8
42 Brown University United States
63.6
43 University of Bristol United Kingdom
62.9
43 Universität Heidelberg Germany
62.9
45 Boston University United States
62.8
46 New York University (NYU) United States
62.4
47 Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) United States
62.3
48 Ohio State University United States
61.6
49 Technische Universität München Germany
61.1
50 Université Paris-Sud France
60.8
51 University of Manchester United Kingdom
60.7
52 University of Minnesota United States
60.6
53 Stockholm University Sweden
60.4
54 University of California, San Diego United States
60.3
55 Carnegie Mellon University United States
60.1
56 Lomonosov Moscow State University Russian Federation
60.0
57 Durham University United Kingdom
59.3
57 McGill University Canada
59.3
59 Universität Bonn Germany
59.0
60 University of Zürich Switzerland
58.9
61 University of California, Santa Cruz United States
58.6
62 Pennsylvania State University United States
58.5
63 Duke University United States
58.4
63 University of California, Irvine United States
58.4
65 University of Pennsylvania United States
58.3
65 Universität Basel Switzerland
58.3
67 Middle East Technical University Turkey
58.0
68 Lund University Sweden
57.6
69 Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Germany
57.0
70 University of Geneva Switzerland
56.7
71 Leiden University Netherlands
56.4
72 Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 France
55.9
73 Tsinghua University China
55.8
74
University of Southampton
United Kingdom
55.6
75 University of Helsinki Finland
55.2
76 University of Bern Switzerland
55.1
77 Texas A&M University United States
54.4
78 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Republic of Korea
54.0
78 RWTH Aachen University Germany
54.0
80
Radboud University
Netherlands
53.7
81 Stony Brook University United States
53.6
81
The University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
53.6
83 University of Warwick United Kingdom
53.5
84 Royal Holloway, University of London United Kingdom
53.2
85 Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble France
52.8
85 Novosibirsk State University Russia
52.8
87 University of California, Davis United States
52.7
87 University of Queensland Australia Australia
52.7
89 University of Sussex United Kingdom
52.4
89 University of Massachusetts United States
52.4
91 Colorado School of Mines United States
52.3
91 University of Strasbourg France
52.3
93 University of Maryland, College Park United States
52.2
93 University of Liverpool United Kingdom
52.2
95 Moscow State Engineering Physics Institute Russian Federation
52.0
96
Florida Institute of Technology
United States
51.9
96 University of Victoria Canada
51.9
98 University of California, Riverside United States
51.8
99 Uppsala University Sweden
51.6
100 University of Arizona United States
51.5

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings’ Physical Sciences subject ranking includes a wide range of narrower subject areas, defined by our data partners Thomson Reuters.

The full list of Physical Sciences subjects used to create this ranking is:

  • Astronomy & Astrophysics
  • Chemistry
  • Crystallography
  • Earth Sciences
  • Mathematics & Statistics
  • Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
  • Nanotechnology
  • Physics
  • Polymer Science
  • Physical Sciences - Other topics