What are the best universities in the UK to study Physics?

If you love huge cities then you should also check out UCL and LSE

It was a bad sarcastic joke... I will kick myself out now

I don't want to live in London...I've had enough HUGE cities (having spent 16-3=13 years of my life in Tokyo and starting life in Paris...) but yeah Imperial course looks interesting. I heard student satisfaction is very low though
I'm thinking of applying to Cambridge unless I suddenly start flunking in sixthform lol. I feel it's more welcoming than Oxford (just my illusion ok I know it lol) and I am quite interested in Chemistry, CompSci, Geology, Biology of Cells modules they offer in the first year

Hi

If you could give me a list of the best unis to study Physics at that would be great.
Out of these, if you could also tell me which ones are in a huge busy city (obviously London but other than that) and which ones are in a relatively quiet city/town (I still count Oxford as quiet, as a person who lived in Tokyo and Paris). I don't really know cities in UK since I've only been to London and Oxford.

I don't really care if the uni is known worldwide, I just want as good education as possible in physics (but I'd assume they're often famous anyway).

Thanks.

Hi

If you could give me a list of the best unis to study Physics at that would be great.
Out of these, if you could also tell me which ones are in a huge busy city (obviously London but other than that) and which ones are in a relatively quiet city/town (I still count Oxford as quiet, as a person who lived in Tokyo and Paris). I don't really know cities in UK since I've only been to London and Oxford.

I don't really care if the uni is known worldwide, I just want as good education as possible in physics (but I'd assume they're often famous anyway).

Thanks.

If you love huge cities then you should also check out UCL and LSE

Hi,
my son has gone through the same question in choosing his unis to put on his ucas form, to study physics. Here's some of the stuff he did / thought about.
1. Cambridge don't do physics degrees - physics is part of the natural sciences tripos - this meant he then wanted to study at oxford.
2. On looking around oxford he decided it was not for him - this bit surprised me as he is more than capable of putting the grades in etc, but it does show you how important open days and visit are. If it is expensive to come to the uk to look around, try and contact all uni departments directly, explain your situation and ask if you can look around at some other time. It will give you at least a sense of the place if you go when term time has begun. Try hard to get to talk to staff and students in the dept and you might be lucky and someone will show you some of the living areas too. But GO AND SEE! It is the only way of getting a feel for the place.
3. Do your research. My son is interested in fusion reactors / nuclear physics so for him, Manchester and Birmingham seemed obvious choices based on their research. You can see the areas of research that each uni is involved in by looking on their physics dept web site. It is all there.
4. However, having looked at the modules that are taught for years 1-3 or 1-4 for MSci/ MPhys he decided that there was not much difference at undergraduate level and that after going on open days, Durham had the most to offer him in terms of 'feel', sports, etc etc as well as the obvious reputation, and that he would specialise more later in doing the masters course at Birmingham in physics of nuclear reactors, with links to Jet in Cullham. So, again this is stuff you can do before visiting - research the modules, how they are taught and assessed and think about your desire for a specialism. PLUS VISIT THE UNIS!
5. To some extent use league tables, but with caution. They are good for ranking if you have a criteria that is important to you. The complete uni guide and the guardian newspaper tables often differ by a number of places. Birmingham uni suggested uni stats was a good indicator as you can search by your preferences in the data collected and rank accordingly.
6. There are different physics degrees - do you want to do physics, theoretical etc, how much lab work do you want to do...? Birmingham's department in partic had a good course overview that showed the different physics degrees and the modules for each, meaning you could see how much was labs and how much was theory etc. So do a bit of research on the net on each uni's department site NOT WIKIPEDIA. Also email the departments, the physics people will be able to answer all your questions if you email physics admissions. They are friendly!
Finally, use the 'current student' forums to ask about individual unis for questions relevant to you.
good luck and sorry about the long message.

Imperial (city by people say it's dead)

what do you mean?

Thanks a lot for the detailed answer, it is very helpful.

I actually find the Cambridge NatSci attracting. Even though I am planning to do physics degree on its own in other universities, I've read that Cambridge NatSci grants the same depth as any other single honour physics degree if I choose to specialise in physics in third year and maybe fourth year. I quite like chemistry as well and I find geology interesting having come from the country of earthquake and tsunami, as well as CompSci since it was once my dream to become a programmer and even the biology of cells is interesting. However I understand that it is very competitive and it sounds it fits me perfectly doing research online, I have not been to Cambridge so I may feel the same as your son once I do.

It sounds like I should arrange some open days trip. I hope all my choices do open days in the same period of time or else the bill for aeroplanes will be insane and we'd run out of money for university lol!

I'm not sure about my true interest yet. I know that I love physics in general, but I'm not sure specifically which field of physics. Especially I live in a country of my third language, so I'm not as good as the language as I'd like to be to buy books here and read them to broaden and deepen my knowledge in physics. There aren't many books available here in English so I'm just using internet at the moment, which is often very confusing for introduction. However, I'm planning to get started in reading next year (in a week precisely) since the bew school allegedly has a good English library there.
So at the moment I'm looking for a broad, generic physics course then if I find something I really like, I could do a further degree. Having said that, Lancaster's Physics with particle physics and cosmology sounds quite nice currently (found it yesterday) and that place looks pretty

It is also annoying that even if I click on a different physics degree on a uni website, I often just get copy/paste from another physics degree and I don't see the difference.

Surprised Nottingham hasn't been mentioned.

Nottingham is pretty much the next best thing if you aren't good enough for Imperial or UCL IMO, and I studied at Notts. That is if you only care about prestige. Durham and St Andrews are more for the arts and humanities.

Have you taken into account that some cities are more classy in clientèle and beautiful and reputable (and possibly safer) than others? If you can afford London, I say Imperial and UCL would be very good choices for Physics.

Nottingham is pretty much the next best thing if you aren't good enough for Imperial or UCL IMO, and I studied at Notts. That is if you only care about prestige. Durham and St Andrews are more for the arts and humanities.

Isn't Nottingham a huge city as well?

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Hmm yes I thought so. A couple of people I know do the sciences at Nottingham and it's quite highly regarded according to them. Physics is generally quite good at Notts based on research and real life examples. I was just surprised it hadn't been mentioned yet, thought it would be right up there!

The best universities are those that suit your needs the best. It's not as simple as looking at a league table and picking the top 5. You can find data on various courses at unistats and there are ranked data on this site.

Hi

If you could give me a list of the best unis to study Physics at that would be great.
Out of these, if you could also tell me which ones are in a huge busy city (obviously London but other than that) and which ones are in a relatively quiet city/town (I still count Oxford as quiet, as a person who lived in Tokyo and Paris). I don't really know cities in UK since I've only been to London and Oxford.

I don't really care if the uni is known worldwide, I just want as good education as possible in physics (but I'd assume they're often famous anyway).

Thanks.

Oxbridge, Imperial, Bath, Manchester, Durham, Warwick, etc.