| 2016 | 2015 | Institution | Country | Academic | Employer | Citations | H | Score |
| 1 | 1 | Royal College of Art | United Kingdom | 100.0 | 73.9 | 97.4 | ||
| 2 | 4 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | United States | 91.5 | 94.0 | 91.8 | ||
| 3 | 3 | Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) | United States | 93.3 | 55.4 | 89.5 | ||
| 4 | 2 | Parsons The New School for Design | United States | 92.1 | 61.7 | 89.1 | ||
| 5 | 8 | University of the Arts London | United Kingdom | 88.5 | 69.9 | 86.6 | ||
| 6 | 5 | Pratt Institute | United States | 89.2 | 58.6 | 86.1 | ||
| 7 | 6 | School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) | United States | 90.3 | 38.8 | 85.2 | ||
| 8= | 17 | Stanford University | United States | 83.2 | 93.7 | 84.3 | ||
| 8= | 15 | Yale University | United States | 84.0 | 87.2 | 84.3 | ||
| 10 | 11 | Politecnico di Milano | Italy | 85.0 | 76.2 | 84.1 | ||
| 11 | 12 | Goldsmiths, University of London | United Kingdom | 84.7 | 77.2 | 84.0 | ||
| 12 | 7 | California Institute of the Arts | United States | 86.5 | 54.9 | 83.3 | ||
| 13= | 16 | Carnegie Mellon University | United States | 82.8 | 75.6 | 82.1 | ||
| 13= | 18 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | United States | 81.5 | 87.5 | 82.1 | ||
| 15 | 13 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 79.7 | 100.0 | 81.7 | ||
| 16 | 20 | RMIT University | Australia | 81.6 | 75.2 | 81.0 | ||
| 17 | 14 | Aalto University | Finland | 83.3 | 56.4 | 80.6 | ||
| 18 | 19 | Design Academy Eindhoven | Netherlands | 82.5 | 59.0 | 80.2 | ||
| 19 | 9 | Art Center College of Design | United States | 83.9 | 39.1 | 79.4 | ||
| 20 | 10 | Glasgow School of Art (GSA) | United Kingdom | 83.7 | 38.8 | 79.2 | ||
| 21 | 24 | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University | Hong Kong | 78.3 | 81.3 | 78.6 | ||
| 22 | 22= | New York University (NYU) | United States | 78.4 | 78.9 | 78.5 | ||
| 23 | 26 | Tsinghua University | China | 76.4 | 86.8 | 77.4 | ||
| 24 | 21 | Columbia University | United States | 76.3 | 84.3 | 77.1 | ||
| 25 | 30 | School of Visual Arts (SVA) | United States | 78.7 | 60.6 | 76.9 | ||
| 26 | 22= | Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) | Mexico | 74.3 | 90.4 | 75.9 | ||
| 27 | 38 | National University of Singapore (NUS) | Singapore | 74.1 | 89.3 | 75.6 | ||
| 28 | 37 | California College of the Arts | United States | 77.9 | 53.1 | 75.4 | ||
| 29 | 25 | The University of New South Wales (UNSW) | Australia | 73.6 | 83.1 | 74.6 | ||
| 30 | 51-100 | Peking University | China | 72.6 | 89.9 | 74.3 | ||
| 31 | 51-100 | University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) | Australia | 73.5 | 80.4 | 74.2 | ||
| 32 | 51-100 | Swinburne University of Technology | Australia | 73.3 | 78.1 | 73.8 | ||
| 33 | 51-100 | UCL (University College London) | United Kingdom | 73.5 | 73.4 | 73.5 | ||
| 34= | 51-100 | Princeton University | United States | 72.7 | 78.8 | 73.3 | ||
| 34= | Tongji University | China | 73.9 | 67.9 | 73.3 | |||
| 36 | 29 | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile | Chile | 72.0 | 82.2 | 73.0 | ||
| 37 | 49 | The University of Melbourne | Australia | 71.5 | 85.8 | 72.9 | ||
| 38 | 40 | Loughborough University | United Kingdom | 73.0 | 70.6 | 72.8 | ||
| 39 | 32= | Universidad de Buenos Aires | Argentina | 71.1 | 83.1 | 72.3 | ||
| 40 | 47= | Seoul National University (SNU) | South Korea | 71.0 | 82.3 | 72.1 | ||
| 41= | 51-100 | Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design | Sweden | 73.0 | 59.6 | 71.7 | ||
| 41= | 51-100 | Umeå University | Sweden | 72.4 | 65.7 | 71.7 | ||
| 43 | 41 | National Taiwan University (NTU) | Taiwan | 70.0 | 84.7 | 71.5 | ||
| 44= | 27 | Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication | United Kingdom | 73.5 | 50.9 | 71.2 | ||
| 44= | 51-100 | The University of Sydney | Australia | 69.4 | 86.9 | 71.2 | ||
| 46= | 28 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | China | 69.6 | 80.8 | 70.7 | ||
| 46= | 51-100 | University of Southern California | United States | 70.6 | 72.0 | 70.7 | ||
| 48 | 45= | Nanyang Technological University (NTU) | Singapore | 69.2 | 81.7 | 70.5 | ||
| 49= | 31 | Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM) | Mexico | 68.7 | 85.0 | 70.3 | ||
| 49= | 47= | University of Chicago | United States | 70.3 | 70.7 | 70.3 |
