Best universities for a mathematics degree?

Please could I get an idea on which universities would be in the top, middle and lower tier for doing a Mathematics degree.

Reply 1

username7089364

My ranking:

Cambridge
Oxford
St Andrews
Warwick
Durham

I'd recommend Oxford if you want to do a joint Maths course

Reply 2

AriTem

If I were applying to uni, I'd be applying to

Cambridge/Oxford
Imperial
Warwick
UCL
Bath

But I admit I am London/closer to London centric for a variety of reasons

Reply 3

EssexStudentRep

Official Rep

Original post by Unister

Please could I get an idea on which universities would be in the top, middle and lower tier for doing a Mathematics degree.

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Reply 4

Labradoodle1

There's an acronym called COWI (not sure how common it is but it seems to be accurate) for the 4 most prestigious maths unis - Cambridge, Oxford, Warwick and Imperial. Of course there are also other very good maths unis besides this, such as UCL, Bristol, Bath and so on.

Reply 5

Unister

Thank you for your responses.

Please could you help me with middle tier universities.

Considering the below choices. Please could I get an idea on how good they are considered to be for a Maths degree :

Lancaster
Nottingham
Loughborough
Southampton
Exeter
Liverpool
Cardiff
Kings College

Are there any other universities in the southern part of UK that would be considered better than any of the above- for the middle tier universities. I know Bristol and Bath would be very good.

Thanks.

Reply 6

rowr0033

Original post by Unister

Thank you for your responses.
Please could you help me with middle tier universities.
Considering the below choices. Please could I get an idea on how good they are considered to be for a Maths degree :
Lancaster
Nottingham
Loughborough
Southampton
Exeter
Liverpool
Cardiff
Kings College
Are there any other universities in the southern part of UK that would be considered better than any of the above- for the middle tier universities. I know Bristol and Bath would be very good.
Thanks.

https://www.shanghairanking.com/rankings/gras/2023/RS0101

https://www.topuniversities.com/university-subject-rankings/mathematics?tab=indicators

I think, as purely from reputation and rankings, a reasonable tiering system (unranked except for the tiers) will go:

Top Tier (Comparable to the best):
> Cambridge (#5 worldwide for Maths by ARWU, #2 worldwide for Maths by QS);
> Oxford (#3 by ARWU, #4 by QS);
> Imperial (#24 by ARWU, #9 by QS);
> Warwick (#21 by ARWU, #27 by QS);
(That's the COWI acronym that's bandied about, for maths in UK universities)
> Edinburgh (#18 by ARWU; #33 by QS)

High Tier:
> UCL (#51-75 by ARWU, #42 by QS);
> Manchester (#151-200 by ARWU, #55 by QS);
> Bristol (#101-150 by ARWU, #85 by QS);
> KCL (#101-150 by ARWU, #68 by QS);
> Bath (#101-150 by ARWU, #102 by QS);
> Glasgow (#101-150 by ARWU, #151-200 by QS)

Middle Tier:
> Durham;
> Heriot-Watt;
> QMUL;

And I would rank the other universities more or less arbitrarily after these.

As for the choices you list, King's College (KCL) I think stand out amongst the others in terms of position in rankings (and thus reputation).

I suggest to compare the others based on their offerings.

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studywithus/ugstudy/courses/UG/Mathematics-MMath-Hons-U7UMATHS.html

https://www.exeter.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/mathematics/mathsmm/#MTH2011

Check out the course offerings from Exeter, I think they appear quite strong. At least, Exeter offers more pure mathematics classes as compared to Nottingham: Nottingham's 3rd year course offerings appear to be all applied maths, which is good if you want to pursue applied maths. Notably, Exeter offers Galois Theory in Year 3. Nottingham...doesn't appear to offer Galois Theory, even at Year 4.

https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/mathematics-msci-hons-g101/2025/

https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/course/mathematics-mmath
Cardiff is interesting in that it offers Algebraic Topology, and Galois Theory, at Year 3, which is followed by Southampton.

https://www.southampton.ac.uk/courses/mathematics-degree-mmath#structure

https://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/mathematics/#modules_year_3

Also looks quite sick, they allow students to do Galois at Year 2!

https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/courses/2024/mathematics-mmath

Liverpool's offerings also look very strong.

I'd say, haha, Nottingham looks quite weak, compared to the rest, from course offerings alone, and then the rest (excl KCL) appears roughly comparable to each other.

Reply 7

Lancaster Student Ambassador

Official Rep

Original post by Unister

Thank you for your responses.
Please could you help me with middle tier universities.
Considering the below choices. Please could I get an idea on how good they are considered to be for a Maths degree :
Lancaster
Nottingham
Loughborough
Southampton
Exeter
Liverpool
Cardiff
Kings College
Are there any other universities in the southern part of UK that would be considered better than any of the above- for the middle tier universities. I know Bristol and Bath would be very good.
Thanks.

Hi!

I have just finished my maths degree at Lancaster. I have really enjoyed the course. I had lots of flexibility to choose my modules (especially in the final year), I personally preferred the statistics side and did lots of stats modules but there are plenty of pure modules if you are more interested in pure. I also did a placement year which I loved and has helped me figure out what I want to do after my degree, there is a lot of support for placement years if that is something you are interested in!

Let me know if you have any questions about maths degrees or Lancaster, I'm happy to help! 🙂
Florence (Lancaster University student ambassador)