In order to qualify for inclusion in the QS World University Rankings® -Social Policy 2016, universities must offer a course or the option to specialize in these disciplines, and meet the discipline specific threshold for papers published.
| 2016 | Institution | Country | Academic | Employer | Citations | Score |
| 1 | Harvard University | United States | 100.0 | 100.0 | 89.7 | 99.0 |
| 2 | London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) | United Kingdom | 96.8 | 92.2 | 84.0 | 94.6 |
| 3 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 93.6 | 96.8 | 72.4 | 92.1 |
| 4 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 88.1 | 97.4 | 84.4 | 89.6 |
| 5 | University of California, Berkeley (UCB) | United States | 90.5 | 79.4 | 86.2 | 87.9 |
| 6 | Stanford University | United States | 83.4 | 94.0 | 87.4 | 85.9 |
| 7 | National University of Singapore (NUS) | Singapore | 84.6 | 92.9 | 60.3 | 83.8 |
| 8 | Princeton University | United States | 78.4 | 86.5 | 97.2 | 81.9 |
| 9 | University of Chicago | United States | 81.7 | 78.1 | 83.1 | 81.1 |
| 10= | Columbia University | United States | 78.8 | 86.0 | 83.6 | 80.7 |
| 10= | University of Hong Kong (HKU) | Hong Kong | 79.3 | 84.0 | 84.3 | 80.7 |
| 12 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | United States | 78.6 | 80.4 | 86.9 | 79.8 |
| 13 | New York University (NYU) | United States | 75.9 | 84.2 | 83.1 | 78.3 |
| 14 | Australian National University (ANU) | Australia | 76.6 | 84.5 | 75.9 | 78.1 |
| 15 | University of Toronto | Canada | 73.3 | 82.6 | 86.2 | 76.5 |
| 16 | The University of Tokyo | Japan | 81.6 | 93.7 | 75.9 | |
| 17 | Seoul National University (SNU) | South Korea | 71.7 | 92.4 | 67.1 | 75.4 |
| 18 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | United States | 73.1 | 87.6 | 63.9 | 75.1 |
| 19 | The University of Melbourne | Australia | 73.4 | 78.7 | 75.1 | 74.6 |
| 20 | Peking University | China | 72.4 | 91.1 | 54.0 | 74.3 |
| 21 | The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) | Hong Kong | 70.4 | 83.3 | 80.5 | 74.0 |
| 22 | University of Michigan | United States | 73.3 | 71.4 | 83.3 | 73.9 |
| 23= | University of British Columbia | Canada | 71.9 | 71.8 | 89.0 | 73.6 |
| 23= | Yonsei University | South Korea | 68.0 | 90.2 | 79.1 | 73.6 |
| 25 | University of York | United Kingdom | 76.7 | 59.5 | 71.7 | 72.8 |
| 26 | University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom | 74.7 | 64.7 | 72.6 | 72.5 |
| 27 | University of Pennsylvania | United States | 67.2 | 84.7 | 84.2 | 72.4 |
| 28 | University of Bristol | United Kingdom | 76.0 | 62.1 | 65.9 | 72.2 |
| 29 | University of Amsterdam | Netherlands | 69.6 | 71.6 | 84.0 | 71.4 |
| 30 | American University | United States | 71.2 | 69.5 | 75.3 | 71.3 |
| 31 | Korea University | South Korea | 66.8 | 92.1 | 58.2 | 71.0 |
| 32 | Indiana University Bloomington | United States | 67.0 | 71.8 | 88.5 | 70.1 |
| 33 | Syracuse University | United States | 77.3 | 35.2 | 87.3 | 69.9 |
| 34 | Katholieke Universiteit Leuven | Belgium | 66.8 | 72.5 | 85.1 | 69.8 |
| 35= | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile | Chile | 70.5 | 79.1 | 41.7 | 69.3 |
| 35= | The University of Sydney | Australia | 64.8 | 85.2 | 69.4 | 69.3 |
| 37 | Tsinghua University | China | 63.5 | 88.5 | 70.0 | 69.2 |
| 38= | Cornell University | United States | 65.8 | 73.9 | 79.4 | 68.8 |
| 38= | The University of New South Wales (UNSW) | Australia | 67.4 | 78.0 | 60.1 | 68.8 |
| 40 | Sciences Po Paris | France | 67.1 | 76.3 | 63.9 | 68.6 |
| 41= | Duke University | United States | 64.7 | 75.6 | 81.3 | 68.5 |
| 41= | UCL (University College London) | United Kingdom | 67.7 | 69.5 | 71.8 | 68.5 |
| 43 | Stockholm University | Sweden | 70.1 | 56.3 | 80.6 | 68.4 |
| 44 | Sungkyunkwan University | South Korea | 63.6 | 90.5 | 55.9 | 68.2 |
| 45= | Johns Hopkins University | United States | 66.9 | 66.0 | 80.2 | 68.1 |
| 45= | University of Texas at Austin | United States | 63.5 | 73.5 | 89.1 | 68.1 |
| 47 | Georgetown University | United States | 63.8 | 70.1 | 92.2 | 67.9 |
| 48 | The University of Georgia | United States | 70.6 | 48.5 | 82.4 | 67.4 |
| 49 | The University of Auckland | New Zealand | 60.8 | 90.6 | 66.4 | 67.3 |
| 50= | University of Southern California | United States | 66.6 | 63.3 | 76.0 | 66.9 |
| 50= | Victoria University of Wellington | New Zealand | 60.5 | 87.6 | 70.1 | 66.9 |
