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Studying physics at university can be fascinating, with a variety of specialisations to explore. The knowledge and skills gained on physics courses can also be applied to a wide range of careers, making it a popular choice among students. There are many universities across the UK offering courses in physics, which can give students plenty of choice, but might make it difficult to figure out which one is the best. To assist with this, we have created a guide to the best universities for physics in the UK, which will give students a good place to start their research.
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The top physics universities in the UK, according to the Complete University Guide’s 2024 league table, are the following three institutions. Students wondering where they should start their search should look at these universities to see what they could expect from their physics course.
When looking for universities to study for up to a year or more, taking notice of the student satisfaction is important, because it explores how happy students have been with the quality of teaching at the institution. For physics subjects, the university with the highest student satisfaction ranking was the University of Leicester.
University degrees will regularly be used to help students find work after finishing a course, which is why it’s important to look at a university’s graduate prospects when trying to find a place to study. The highest-ranking university for graduate prospects in physics subjects was the Imperial College London.
Go to: Search physics courses at Imperial College London
Research plays a huge part in physics, and offers many fascinating areas for independent study and opportunities where breakthroughs can occur. As such, students looking to study a research-based physics course should consider a university’s research quality. The University of Sheffield had the highest ranking for research quality in physics subjects.
Go to: Search physics courses at the University of Sheffield
We have used ranking information from the Complete University Guide’s league tables for these sections. To create the tables, Complete University Guide sources data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the 2021 Research Excellence Framework and the National Student Survey. The Complete University Guide calculates the rankings with its own methodology.
Go to: See the 2024 Complete University Guide physics subject league table
UCL (University College London) has received positive reviews from a number of physics students on Whatuni, which includes some five-star ratings. Quotes from these students include, “Lecturers are often very responsive and helpful to queries”, and “Good facilities and a good student life.”
Go to: Search physics courses at UCL (University College London)
To find out which other universities offer postgraduate courses in physics, please take a look at our course search tool. This can be filtered by qualifcation, subject, region and more to help make it easier to narrow down choices.
Next: Search for physics courses
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