In order to qualify for inclusion in the QS World University Rankings® -Modern Languages 2016, universities must offer a course or the option to specialize in these disciplines, and meet the discipline specific threshold for papers published.
| 2016 | 2015 | Institution | Country | Academic | Employer | Score |
| 1 | 1 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
| 2 | 2 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 99.7 | 99.3 | 99.6 |
| 3 | 3 | Harvard University | United States | 99.9 | 95.5 | 98.6 |
| 4 | 4 | University of California, Berkeley (UCB) | United States | 95.7 | 83.6 | 92.1 |
| 5 | 8 | Stanford University | United States | 92.3 | 86.4 | 90.5 |
| 6 | 7 | Yale University | United States | 93.0 | 84.2 | 90.4 |
| 7 | 6 | The University of Tokyo | Japan | 91.6 | 84.4 | 89.4 |
| 8 | 5 | Peking University | China | 91.1 | 84.9 | 89.2 |
| 9 | 10 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | United States | 91.6 | 78.4 | 87.6 |
| 10 | 13 | Princeton University | United States | 90.6 | 79.8 | 87.4 |
| 11 | 9 | Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV) | France | 90.2 | 80.4 | 87.3 |
| 12 | 17= | UCL (University College London) | United Kingdom | 89.3 | 81.7 | 87.0 |
| 13 | 11 | National University of Singapore (NUS) | Singapore | 87.5 | 85.5 | 86.9 |
| 14 | 12 | Columbia University | United States | 90.3 | 77.9 | 86.6 |
| 15 | 15 | University of Hong Kong (HKU) | Hong Kong | 86.3 | 85.6 | 86.1 |
| 16 | 16 | Seoul National University (SNU) | South Korea | 87.1 | 82.5 | 85.7 |
| 17 | 26 | University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom | 87.8 | 79.0 | 85.2 |
| 18 | 14 | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Germany | 88.5 | 76.9 | 85.0 |
| 19= | 19 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | United States | 83.6 | 86.5 | 84.5 |
| 19= | 21 | University of Toronto | Canada | 87.9 | 76.4 | 84.5 |
| 21 | 22= | University of Chicago | United States | 88.3 | 75.2 | 84.4 |
| 22 | 22= | New York University (NYU) | United States | 85.6 | 80.3 | 84.0 |
| 23 | 17= | Kyoto University | Japan | 87.7 | 74.4 | 83.7 |
| 24= | 32 | Freie Universität Berlin | Germany | 88.9 | 69.8 | 83.2 |
| 24= | 25 | The University of Manchester | United Kingdom | 83.3 | 82.8 | 83.2 |
| 26 | 24 | Australian National University (ANU) | Australia | 84.7 | 78.0 | 82.7 |
| 27 | 30= | Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg | Germany | 85.0 | 76.3 | 82.4 |
| 28 | 20 | Sungkyunkwan University | South Korea | 82.4 | 81.9 | 82.3 |
| 29 | 34 | McGill University | Canada | 84.4 | 76.6 | 82.1 |
| 30= | 33 | The University of Warwick | United Kingdom | 81.1 | 83.8 | 81.9 |
| 30= | 35 | Tsinghua University | China | 82.0 | 81.5 | 81.9 |
| 32 | 37= | Universidad de Buenos Aires | Argentina | 82.6 | 79.9 | 81.8 |
| 33 | 27= | Korea University | South Korea | 84.3 | 75.5 | 81.7 |
| 34 | 40 | King's College London (KCL) | United Kingdom | 80.9 | 83.0 | 81.5 |
| 35 | 27= | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | Germany | 85.8 | 70.1 | 81.1 |
| 36 | 37= | Cornell University | United States | 83.7 | 73.7 | 80.7 |
| 37= | 36 | Fudan University | China | 81.6 | 77.7 | 80.4 |
| 37= | 44 | The University of Melbourne | Australia | 81.7 | 77.5 | 80.4 |
| 39= | 39 | National Taiwan University (NTU) | Taiwan | 83.2 | 73.6 | 80.3 |
| 39= | 49= | Trinity College Dublin (TCD) | Ireland | 80.9 | 78.8 | 80.3 |
| 39= | 43 | University of Amsterdam | Netherlands | 83.9 | 71.9 | 80.3 |
| 42= | 30= | The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) | Hong Kong | 82.9 | 73.9 | 80.2 |
| 42= | 45 | The University of Sydney | Australia | 81.3 | 77.7 | 80.2 |
| 44 | 27= | Yonsei University | South Korea | 81.2 | 77.0 | 79.9 |
| 45 | 51-100 | Leiden University | Netherlands | 83.1 | 72.1 | 79.8 |
| 46= | 46= | Hankuk University of Foreign Studies | South Korea | 80.1 | 77.5 | 79.3 |
| 46= | 49= | Waseda University | Japan | 83.7 | 69.1 | 79.3 |
| 48 | 49= | Brown University | United States | 81.4 | 73.9 | 79.2 |
| 49= | 51-100 | Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) | Mexico | 86.0 | 62.7 | 79.0 |
| 49= | 49= | University of British Columbia | Canada | 82.9 | 69.8 | 79.0 |
