In order to qualify for inclusion in the QS World University Rankings® -Physics 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 | Citations | H | Score |
| 1 | 1 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | United States | 100.0 | 96.7 | 94.0 | 98.8 | 97.9 |
| 2 | 2= | Harvard University | United States | 97.8 | 95.7 | 95.2 | 95.7 | 96.4 |
| 3 | 4 | Stanford University | United States | 95.1 | 93.9 | 97.4 | 100.0 | 96.3 |
| 4 | 2= | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 98.3 | 100.0 | 90.6 | 91.4 | 95.7 |
| 5 | 5 | University of California, Berkeley (UCB) | United States | 97.2 | 90.3 | 94.7 | 95.0 | 94.9 |
| 6 | 6 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 95.9 | 97.5 | 91.3 | 90.9 | 94.3 |
| 7 | 8 | California Institute of Technology (Caltech) | United States | 95.2 | 82.4 | 91.6 | 95.1 | 91.9 |
| 8= | 7 | Princeton University | United States | 93.3 | 80.4 | 94.9 | 93.2 | 91.0 |
| 8= | 11 | The University of Tokyo | Japan | 91.9 | 90.1 | 86.3 | 95.0 | 91.0 |
| 10 | 9 | ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) | Switzerland | 91.6 | 89.9 | 89.1 | 87.9 | 90.0 |
| 11 | 10 | Imperial College London | United Kingdom | 90.8 | 89.8 | 88.0 | 89.6 | 89.8 |
| 12 | 12 | University of Chicago | United States | 86.4 | 76.1 | 97.2 | 89.2 | 87.1 |
| 13= | 13 | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | Germany | 88.9 | 77.0 | 92.4 | 86.3 | 86.7 |
| 13= | 17 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | United States | 85.4 | 80.9 | 92.8 | 89.0 | 86.7 |
| 15 | 19 | Columbia University | United States | 81.1 | 83.4 | 96.3 | 90.2 | 86.4 |
| 16 | 16 | Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) | Switzerland | 85.1 | 88.1 | 89.0 | 84.3 | 86.3 |
| 17 | 14 | Technische Universität München | Germany | 83.1 | 89.5 | 90.2 | 85.0 | 86.2 |
| 18 | 23 | National University of Singapore (NUS) | Singapore | 84.0 | 86.4 | 90.3 | 83.4 | 85.6 |
| 19= | 18 | Kyoto University | Japan | 85.4 | 86.3 | 82.5 | 87.3 | 85.4 |
| 19= | 20 | Yale University | United States | 83.7 | 75.5 | 94.6 | 89.6 | 85.4 |
| 21= | 21 | Cornell University | United States | 84.2 | 77.3 | 91.6 | 88.9 | 85.2 |
| 21= | 15 | University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) | United States | 88.8 | 54.9 | 100.0 | 93.3 | 85.2 |
| 23= | 28 | KIT, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie | Germany | 80.1 | 85.0 | 85.4 | 87.6 | 83.6 |
| 23= | 25= | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | United States | 84.8 | 71.5 | 89.3 | 87.4 | 83.6 |
| 25 | 29 | Tokyo Institute of Technology | Japan | 85.3 | 83.2 | 80.1 | 83.0 | 83.4 |
| 26 | 24 | Ecole Polytechnique ParisTech | France | 81.1 | 79.4 | 89.7 | 85.4 | 83.3 |
| 27 | 36 | Lomonosov Moscow State University | Russia | 80.9 | 94.5 | 71.4 | 87.3 | 83.0 |
| 28 | 27 | Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg | Germany | 83.2 | 74.2 | 88.6 | 85.2 | 82.9 |
| 29 | 34= | University of Maryland, College Park | United States | 76.5 | 74.7 | 93.4 | 93.0 | 82.8 |
| 30= | 38= | Peking University | China | 79.7 | 85.6 | 82.2 | 85.2 | 82.5 |
| 30= | 41= | Tsinghua University | China | 81.5 | 85.2 | 79.9 | 84.5 | 82.5 |
| 32= | 22 | Sapienza - Università di Roma | Italy | 80.6 | 74.5 | 83.8 | 89.2 | 81.7 |
| 32= | 32= | University of Michigan | United States | 75.2 | 78.1 | 89.6 | 90.4 | 81.7 |
| 32= | 34= | University of Toronto | Canada | 77.5 | 78.8 | 88.4 | 86.1 | 81.7 |
| 35= | 41= | Seoul National University (SNU) | South Korea | 80.9 | 79.2 | 85.2 | 81.7 | 81.6 |
| 35= | 37 | Tohoku University | Japan | 83.3 | 77.5 | 79.8 | 84.3 | 81.6 |
| 37 | 32= | UCL (University College London) | United Kingdom | 80.0 | 78.2 | 84.7 | 83.6 | 81.3 |
| 38= | 45= | Osaka University | Japan | 82.6 | 78.5 | 76.8 | 84.1 | 80.9 |
| 38= | 38= | University of Texas at Austin | United States | 76.7 | 72.8 | 91.3 | 86.8 | 80.9 |
| 40= | 30= | Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen | Germany | 75.3 | 78.3 | 87.4 | 86.9 | 80.6 |
| 40= | 25= | The University of Manchester | United Kingdom | 79.7 | 74.6 | 83.6 | 85.6 | 80.6 |
| 42 | 43 | Nanyang Technological University (NTU) | Singapore | 75.8 | 85.6 | 85.0 | 79.8 | 80.4 |
| 43 | 45= | Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris (ENS Paris) | France | 86.3 | 69.8 | 89.9 | 68.7 | 80.2 |
| 44 | 45= | The University of Melbourne | Australia | 74.3 | 80.8 | 89.1 | 82.2 | 80.1 |
| 45 | 51-100 | Universität Hamburg | Germany | 76.2 | 68.9 | 90.6 | 87.4 | 79.9 |
| 46 | 49 | University of British Columbia | Canada | 75.2 | 75.7 | 89.8 | 82.6 | 79.7 |
| 47= | 51-100 | Delft University of Technology | Netherlands | 79.9 | 83.5 | 81.3 | 73.4 | 79.6 |
| 47= | 50= | National Taiwan University (NTU) | Taiwan | 77.4 | 82.4 | 80.3 | 80.4 | 79.6 |
| 49 | 38= | University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom | 75.3 | 76.9 | 87.8 | 82.4 | 79.5 |
| 50= | 45= | University of California, San Diego (UCSD) | United States | 76.9 | 71.3 | 86.2 | 84.9 | 79.2 |
| 50= | 44 | University of Pennsylvania | United States | 74.8 | 67.8 | 94.6 | 84.0 | 79.2 |
