In order to qualify for inclusion in the QS World University Rankings® -Education 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 | UCL Institute of Education | University College London | United Kingdom | 100.0 | 91.2 | 95.7 | 96.7 | 97.6 |
| 2 | 2 | Harvard University | United States | 89.0 | 100.0 | 99.3 | 100.0 | 94.4 |
| 3 | 3 | Stanford University | United States | 85.6 | 91.2 | 100.0 | 97.3 | 91.4 |
| 4 | 4 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 86.8 | 99.0 | 93.8 | 87.9 | 89.6 |
| 5 | 7 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 85.9 | 98.9 | 93.3 | 85.4 | 88.6 |
| 6 | 6 | University of Hong Kong (HKU) | Hong Kong | 86.0 | 87.2 | 92.3 | 89.4 | 88.1 |
| 7= | 5 | The University of Melbourne | Australia | 85.9 | 88.0 | 91.9 | 89.4 | 88.0 |
| 7= | 11 | University of California, Berkeley (UCB) | United States | 83.7 | 82.9 | 96.3 | 92.9 | 88.0 |
| 9= | 18 | University of British Columbia | Canada | 81.4 | 81.4 | 95.7 | 89.4 | 85.9 |
| 9= | 8 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | United States | 79.0 | 86.6 | 95.8 | 92.9 | 85.9 |
| 11 | 17 | University of Toronto | Canada | 81.9 | 79.3 | 92.0 | 90.9 | 85.5 |
| 12 | 15 | The Hong Kong Institute of Education | Hong Kong | 84.1 | 72.9 | 91.1 | 86.3 | 84.8 |
| 13 | 12= | Columbia University | United States | 80.7 | 80.4 | 92.5 | 88.7 | 84.6 |
| 14= | 10 | Nanyang Technological University (NTU) | Singapore | 78.0 | 85.6 | 92.9 | 90.9 | 84.3 |
| 14= | 12= | University of Michigan | United States | 75.3 | 75.4 | 97.8 | 97.8 | 84.3 |
| 16 | 9 | The University of Sydney | Australia | 80.8 | 91.0 | 89.7 | 83.7 | 84.2 |
| 17 | 16 | Monash University | Australia | 79.4 | 85.1 | 90.9 | 87.9 | 84.0 |
| 18 | 21 | The University of Queensland (UQ) | Australia | 78.1 | 80.9 | 91.6 | 89.4 | 83.3 |
| 19 | 14 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | United States | 79.8 | 67.4 | 92.5 | 87.9 | 82.7 |
| 20 | 29 | University of Texas at Austin | United States | 69.0 | 72.0 | 97.3 | 96.1 | 80.4 |
| 21= | 31 | University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom | 78.5 | 75.1 | 87.9 | 79.8 | 80.3 |
| 21= | 22= | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | United States | 75.4 | 67.4 | 91.2 | 87.9 | 80.3 |
| 23= | 36 | King's College London (KCL) | United Kingdom | 72.0 | 78.7 | 95.5 | 86.3 | 80.2 |
| 23= | 26 | The University of Auckland | New Zealand | 73.7 | 87.3 | 89.6 | 83.7 | 80.2 |
| 25 | 19 | Michigan State University | United States | 73.5 | 62.8 | 93.5 | 90.9 | 79.9 |
| 26 | 20 | The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) | Hong Kong | 76.8 | 76.3 | 89.2 | 79.8 | 79.8 |
| 27 | 40 | University of Bristol | United Kingdom | 73.9 | 69.9 | 94.6 | 81.8 | 79.2 |
| 28= | 48 | The University of Nottingham | United Kingdom | 71.8 | 75.8 | 92.4 | 85.4 | 79.0 |
| 28= | 27= | University of Birmingham | United Kingdom | 72.4 | 76.0 | 92.4 | 83.7 | 79.0 |
| 30 | 32= | Pennsylvania State University | United States | 70.8 | 62.1 | 92.4 | 92.3 | 78.6 |
| 31 | 32= | Deakin University | Australia | 74.8 | 71.0 | 90.3 | 79.8 | 78.5 |
| 32 | 24= | Vanderbilt University | United States | 75.8 | 34.3 | 95.8 | 89.4 | 78.4 |
| 33= | 38= | Johns Hopkins University | United States | 71.4 | 66.9 | 94.1 | 84.6 | 78.1 |
| 33= | 47 | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile | Chile | 78.9 | 84.1 | 82.4 | 68.7 | 78.1 |
| 35= | 27= | McGill University | Canada | 71.2 | 78.0 | 93.4 | 79.8 | 78.0 |
| 35= | 51-100 | University of Amsterdam | Netherlands | 67.7 | 77.3 | 96.0 | 86.3 | 78.0 |
| 37= | 24= | Boston College | United States | 70.3 | 68.0 | 95.8 | 82.8 | 77.7 |
| 37= | 51-100 | University of Chicago | United States | 69.0 | 75.7 | 98.5 | 79.8 | 77.7 |
| 37= | 30 | University of Washington | United States | 66.3 | 67.1 | 97.1 | 92.3 | 77.7 |
| 40 | 49 | Australian National University (ANU) | Australia | 72.8 | 92.9 | 86.2 | 72.9 | 77.5 |
| 41= | 51-100 | Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) | Mexico | 86.2 | 83.8 | 71.3 | 58.1 | 77.4 |
| 41= | 42= | University of Alberta | Canada | 69.3 | 73.2 | 93.2 | 83.7 | 77.4 |
| 43 | 51-100 | The University of Manchester | United Kingdom | 66.9 | 80.9 | 92.4 | 86.3 | 77.3 |
| 44 | 22= | National Taiwan Normal University | Taiwan | 72.0 | 72.5 | 89.2 | 79.8 | 77.1 |
| 45= | 51-100 | New York University (NYU) | United States | 63.9 | 78.2 | 96.2 | 87.1 | 76.4 |
| 45= | 45 | University of Pennsylvania | United States | 65.2 | 71.9 | 94.4 | 88.7 | 76.4 |
| 45= | 50= | University of Twente | Netherlands | 71.9 | 45.3 | 96.6 | 82.8 | 76.4 |
| 48= | 41 | The University of New South Wales (UNSW) | Australia | 71.3 | 77.7 | 88.0 | 76.6 | 76.3 |
| 48= | 34 | University of Leeds | United Kingdom | 67.4 | 71.8 | 93.4 | 83.7 | 76.3 |
| 50 | 44 | University of Helsinki | Finland | 68.7 | 75.2 | 90.6 | 80.8 | 76.2 |
