Top 50 Life Sciences universities

3 November 2011

Cambridge, Massachusetts is a centre for global excellence in the life sciences: it is home to both the world's number one in the field, Harvard University, and the number two, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Indeed, Harvard and MIT share research facilities at the Broad Institute, founded in 2003 as a "new kind of research institution" designed to use "systematic approaches in the biological sciences to dramatically accelerate the understanding and treatment of disease".

The emphasis at Broad is on collaboration and risk-taking, and the approach seems to have paid off: it has recently been credited with a string of breakthroughs in areas including cancer research and genetics.

The life sciences field, covering everything from agriculture and biology to plant sciences and zoology, is one of the most globally diverse in our subject tables, with 11 nations represented.

Some 21 institutions on the list are from the US, but the UK also performs well, with the ancient rivals Cambridge and Oxford universities in third and fourth place respectively, heading a list of nine UK institutions.

Scotland is represented by the University of Glasgow (43rd). Some 90 per cent of its research in the life sciences was described as "of international quality" in the UK's final research assessment exercise in 2008.

Mainland Europe is represented by ETH Zürich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich in Switzerland; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Germany; Uppsala University in Sweden; Utrecht University in the Netherlands; and Ghent University in Belgium, among others.

Japan has three representatives in the life sciences subject table: the universities of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.

As befits the city where the historic global climate change protocol was signed in 1997, Kyoto is home to a School of Global Environmental Studies.

Top 50 Life Sciences Universities 2011-2012
  Subject RankOrdered by this column, descending Institution Country / Region Life sciencesOverall score Life sciencesTeaching Life sciencesInternational mix Life sciencesIndustry income Life sciencesResearch Life sciencesCitations
1 Harvard University United States
92.6
94
70.3
41
92.7
99.9
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States
91.9
90.7
61.2
99.8
90.5
100
3 University of Cambridge United Kingdom
91.3
94.7
83.9
42.9
87
96.9
4 University of Oxford United Kingdom
91.2
90.9
87.1
50.6
89.1
97
5 Stanford University United States
89.6
87.5
47.4
67.8
92.4
99.5
6 University of California, Berkeley United States
87.2
87.3
36.2
36.5
91.1
98.6
7 Yale University United States
86.8
85.5
44.3
33.5
91
97.4
8 Princeton University United States
86.1
81.8
40.3
90.3
85.1
99.7
9 Imperial College London United Kingdom
84.5
82.4
94.2
49.7
84.5
86.5
10 University of California, Los Angeles United States
82.6
80.7
41.5
Data withheld by THE
85.4
93.9
11 University College London United Kingdom
81
81.7
87.2
31.2
79.4
83.9
12 University of Chicago United States
80.8
78.2
62.5
Data withheld by THE
69.7
96.2
13 University of Washington United States
80
74.7
40.2
35
80.1
95.9
14 Cornell University United States
79.4
77.9
47.4
Data withheld by THE
85.3
85.7
14 University of British Columbia Canada
79.4
77.4
87.1
30.1
74.5
86.7
16 University of California, San Diego United States
78.9
69.3
30.9
58.7
78.5
98.6
17 Wageningen University and Research Center Netherlands
78.4
79.1
82.6
100
82.8
72.1
18 University of California, Davis United States
78.2
81.8
54.1
61.1
88.1
73.9
19 University of Michigan United States
77.6
67.6
54.1
61.2
73.2
95
20 University of Wisconsin-Madison United States
77.5
79.5
22.6
64.9
78.5
88
21 ETH Zürich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich Switzerland
76.9
73.6
96.3
Data withheld by THE
71.4
80.3
22 University of Toronto Canada
76.4
65.7
64.4
46
80.1
86.7
23 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom
75.9
71.8
75.6
36
67.8
88.3
24 McGill University Canada
75.1
71.1
78
38.1
71.5
83.2
25 University of Tokyo Japan
72.6
87.5
23.5
70.1
81.8
64.4
26 The University of Queensland Australia Australia
72
72.3
75.5
50.9
68.1
75.4
27 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Germany
67.1
72.8
50.8
37.8
63.6
71.1
27 University of Melbourne Australia
67.1
64.7
79.3
38.5
66.8
68.7
29 Kyoto University Japan
67
75.9
24.1
71.2
72.8
64.5
30 Uppsala University Sweden
66.6
75
66.9
56.8
73.4
55.1
30 Utrecht University Netherlands
66.6
56
58.6
78.1
54.6
85.1
32 University of Massachusetts United States
65.4
55.6
33.9
64.2
55.6
87.5
33 Australian National University Australia
65.3
54.5
90.4
33.4
61.2
73.8
34 University of California, Santa Barbara United States
64.4
40.7
39.9
99.5
50.9
96.4
35 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States
63.2
49.9
23
36.2
51.6
93.3
36 Ghent University Belgium
61.8
54.9
69.1
100
48.3
73.6
37 University of Sheffield United Kingdom
61.7
48.1
66.7
29.7
49.5
83.1
38 Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Belgium
60.5
50
57.7
100
47
77
39 Pennsylvania State University United States
60.4
43.2
27.9
69.9
50.3
88
39 University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign United States
60.4
53
44.7
Data withheld by THE
58.8
72.1
41 Université de Lausanne Switzerland
60
36
97.3
52.6
34.4
91.4
41 University of Minnesota United States
60
58.8
24.1
Data withheld by THE
61.9
69.3
43 University of Glasgow United Kingdom
59.3
44.7
70.3
49.8
46.4
79.3
44 National University of Singapore Singapore
59.2
58.3
95.5
65.1
54.3
55.7
45 King's College London United Kingdom
58.8
48.8
81.1
38.9
39.8
78.3
45 Lund University Sweden
58.8
58.2
74.1
36.3
57
59.2
45 The University of Sydney Australia
58.8
59.6
81.2
95
64.1
46.6
48 Osaka University Japan
58.4
57.4
20.8
93.1
57.3
65.5
49 University of Bristol United Kingdom
58.2
44.4
56.5
28.4
42
84.1
50 Boston University United States
57.8
47
30.7
26.1
36
91.4

Uni

Life sciences scores

Subject rank
101
Overall score
Teaching
International outlook
Industry income
Research
Citations
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