In order to qualify for inclusion in the QS World University Rankings® -Development Studies 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 | 2 | Harvard University | United States | 91.8 | 100.0 | 93.6 | 84.1 | 91.7 |
| 2 | 1 | University of Sussex | United Kingdom | 100.0 | 63.7 | 84.8 | 82.3 | 91.4 |
| 3 | 5 | London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) | United Kingdom | 88.3 | 92.0 | 93.6 | 100.0 | 91.2 |
| 4 | 4 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 89.1 | 99.4 | 87.7 | 96.8 | 91.1 |
| 5 | 6 | University of California, Berkeley (UCB) | United States | 88.8 | 84.7 | 100.0 | 91.8 | 90.5 |
| 6 | 8 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 87.5 | 96.6 | 91.8 | 93.1 | 89.9 |
| 7 | 3 | The University of Manchester | United Kingdom | 87.0 | 83.0 | 90.7 | 96.8 | 88.6 |
| 8 | 10 | Australian National University (ANU) | Australia | 86.7 | 92.9 | 86.4 | 90.4 | 87.8 |
| 9= | 9 | Stanford University | United States | 84.5 | 90.9 | 97.4 | 84.1 | 87.0 |
| 9= | 7 | University of Cape Town | South Africa | 86.6 | 86.3 | 90.1 | 85.8 | 87.0 |
| 11 | 13= | SOAS - School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London | United Kingdom | 85.5 | 78.1 | 88.7 | 80.4 | 84.5 |
| 12 | 11 | University of East Anglia (UEA) | United Kingdom | 86.1 | 41.3 | 86.8 | 80.4 | 80.9 |
| 13 | 26= | Wageningen University | Netherlands | 79.9 | 54.9 | 87.2 | 94.4 | 80.7 |
| 14= | 15 | University of The Witwatersrand | South Africa | 81.5 | 90.6 | 74.7 | 73.8 | 80.2 |
| 14= | 20 | University of Toronto | Canada | 76.9 | 61.5 | 94.1 | 91.8 | 80.2 |
| 16 | 12 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | United States | 79.6 | 84.1 | 80.9 | 73.8 | 79.4 |
| 17 | 18 | Princeton University | United States | 80.9 | 83.7 | 74.0 | 71.2 | 78.7 |
| 18 | 17 | University of Delhi | India | 77.4 | 88.6 | 78.3 | 73.8 | 78.1 |
| 19 | 13= | University of Copenhagen | Denmark | 74.1 | 83.9 | 83.3 | 80.4 | 77.4 |
| 20 | 16 | The University of Tokyo | Japan | 79.3 | 87.2 | 67.8 | 71.2 | 77.2 |
| 21 | 19 | The University of Melbourne | Australia | 77.1 | 75.8 | 79.3 | 73.8 | 76.8 |
| 22 | 25 | University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom | 72.3 | 80.2 | 88.2 | 80.4 | 76.7 |
| 23= | 21 | The University of Queensland (UQ) | Australia | 71.2 | 69.4 | 91.2 | 87.4 | 76.5 |
| 23= | 22 | University of Hong Kong (HKU) | Hong Kong | 76.0 | 79.3 | 81.6 | 71.2 | 76.5 |
| 25 | 24 | University of Amsterdam | Netherlands | 72.4 | 70.2 | 90.1 | 82.3 | 76.3 |
| 26 | 23 | The University of Auckland | New Zealand | 74.5 | 85.6 | 77.5 | 73.8 | 76.0 |
| 27 | 30 | The University of Sydney | Australia | 73.6 | 74.0 | 85.1 | 76.2 | 75.8 |
| 28 | 36 | Brown University | United States | 73.5 | 64.5 | 85.3 | 76.2 | 74.8 |
| 29 | 28= | Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) | Mexico | 83.3 | 82.6 | 48.4 | 53.2 | 73.5 |
| 30= | 33 | Makerere University | Uganda | 75.0 | 82.3 | 65.2 | 68.4 | 73.3 |
| 30= | 32 | Universiti Malaya (UM) | Malaysia | 76.9 | 79.4 | 62.9 | 65.3 | 73.3 |
| 32 | 31 | Uppsala University | Sweden | 74.9 | 50.7 | 78.8 | 71.2 | 72.5 |
| 33 | 26= | Johns Hopkins University | United States | 69.3 | 72.6 | 85.2 | 71.2 | 72.3 |
| 34 | 51-100 | University of Leeds | United Kingdom | 63.7 | 72.4 | 91.5 | 85.8 | 72.1 |
| 35 | 42 | McGill University | Canada | 73.1 | 58.5 | 77.3 | 71.2 | 72.0 |
| 36 | 50= | Georg-August-Universität Göttingen | Germany | 66.5 | 70.9 | 87.4 | 78.4 | 71.9 |
| 37 | 28= | King's College London (KCL) | United Kingdom | 69.4 | 76.1 | 79.0 | 71.2 | 71.8 |
| 38 | 51-100 | University of Bristol | United Kingdom | 65.7 | 81.9 | 81.8 | 78.4 | 71.6 |
| 39 | 34= | University of Chicago | United States | 71.5 | 79.1 | 76.8 | 57.8 | 71.0 |
| 40 | Arizona State University | United States | 63.9 | 63.6 | 89.3 | 82.3 | 70.4 | |
| 41 | 47= | The University of Sheffield | United Kingdom | 64.7 | 53.3 | 91.5 | 82.3 | 70.2 |
| 42 | 37 | University of Reading | United Kingdom | 61.8 | 54.0 | 94.2 | 89.0 | 70.0 |
| 43 | 50= | Lund University | Sweden | 65.0 | 65.5 | 85.8 | 76.2 | 69.9 |
| 44 | 47= | University of Bath | United Kingdom | 64.6 | 54.7 | 86.2 | 82.3 | 69.5 |
| 45 | 39 | Katholieke Universiteit Leuven | Belgium | 64.4 | 58.4 | 84.8 | 80.4 | 69.3 |
| 46 | 51-100 | The Open University | United Kingdom | 64.5 | 52.8 | 85.8 | 82.3 | 69.2 |
| 47 | 38 | Monash University | Australia | 60.3 | 71.7 | 85.8 | 85.8 | 69.1 |
| 48 | 51-100 | Duke University | United States | 57.6 | 80.8 | 90.9 | 84.1 | 68.9 |
| 49 | 40 | National Taiwan University (NTU) | Taiwan | 68.5 | 89.3 | 67.6 | 57.8 | 68.8 |
| 50 | University of Ghent | Belgium | 61.1 | 57.8 | 87.7 | 87.4 | 68.7 |
