In order to qualify for inclusion in the QS World University Rankings® -English Language 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 | Score |
| 1 | 2 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 100.0 | 99.4 | 70.9 | 97.0 |
| 2 | 1 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 99.5 | 100.0 | 72.1 | 96.8 |
| 3 | 3 | Harvard University | United States | 97.7 | 97.3 | 75.7 | 95.5 |
| 4 | 4 | University of California, Berkeley (UCB) | United States | 95.7 | 85.1 | 89.3 | 94.0 |
| 5 | 5 | Yale University | United States | 94.7 | 90.6 | 74.3 | 92.3 |
| 6 | 6 | Stanford University | United States | 92.8 | 92.4 | 86.0 | 92.1 |
| 7= | 7 | Columbia University | United States | 91.3 | 84.6 | 77.2 | 89.2 |
| 7= | 8 | University of Chicago | United States | 90.1 | 81.7 | 89.2 | 89.2 |
| 9 | 9 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | United States | 91.1 | 85.3 | 75.4 | 89.0 |
| 10 | 10 | Princeton University | United States | 91.2 | 82.8 | 76.4 | 88.9 |
| 11 | 12 | National University of Singapore (NUS) | Singapore | 89.3 | 87.9 | 73.9 | 87.6 |
| 12 | 11 | University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom | 90.1 | 80.2 | 70.1 | 87.1 |
| 13 | 13 | University of Toronto | Canada | 89.2 | 81.2 | 75.3 | 87.0 |
| 14= | 15 | New York University (NYU) | United States | 85.2 | 78.9 | 85.8 | 84.6 |
| 14= | 14 | University of Pennsylvania | United States | 84.3 | 77.8 | 93.5 | 84.6 |
| 16 | 17 | UCL (University College London) | United Kingdom | 87.6 | 83.3 | 60.3 | 84.4 |
| 17 | 16 | Cornell University | United States | 85.1 | 79.9 | 81.6 | 84.2 |
| 18= | 19 | Duke University | United States | 84.7 | 73.8 | 85.5 | 83.7 |
| 18= | 20 | The University of Melbourne | Australia | 84.7 | 87.1 | 72.3 | 83.7 |
| 20= | 18 | The University of Sydney | Australia | 84.4 | 84.1 | 76.9 | 83.6 |
| 20= | 23 | University of Michigan | United States | 83.7 | 78.7 | 87.4 | 83.6 |
| 22= | 25 | Australian National University (ANU) | Australia | 83.4 | 83.4 | 76.7 | 82.7 |
| 22= | 22 | The University of Warwick | United Kingdom | 83.4 | 81.4 | 78.7 | 82.7 |
| 24 | 24 | University of Hong Kong (HKU) | Hong Kong | 83.7 | 87.4 | 64.3 | 82.1 |
| 25 | 26 | The University of Manchester | United Kingdom | 81.4 | 82.3 | 80.5 | 81.4 |
| 26 | 21 | University of British Columbia | Canada | 82.2 | 80.4 | 70.5 | 80.9 |
| 27 | 29= | University of York | United Kingdom | 81.9 | 69.3 | 83.5 | 80.8 |
| 28 | 31 | McGill University | Canada | 81.9 | 77.4 | 71.3 | 80.4 |
| 29 | 28 | The University of Tokyo | Japan | 83.4 | 88.9 | 42.9 | 79.9 |
| 30 | 27 | King's College London (KCL) | United Kingdom | 83.3 | 79.4 | 51.3 | 79.7 |
| 31 | 33= | The University of Auckland | New Zealand | 80.1 | 74.1 | 81.5 | 79.6 |
| 32 | 32 | Trinity College Dublin (TCD) | Ireland | 81.7 | 77.8 | 58.5 | 79.0 |
| 33 | 33= | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | United States | 79.6 | 89.4 | 62.8 | 78.9 |
| 34 | 29= | University of Texas at Austin | United States | 81.0 | 74.7 | 64.0 | 78.7 |
| 35 | 44 | Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL) | United Kingdom | 78.6 | 70.9 | 78.8 | 77.9 |
| 36= | 38= | University of Glasgow | United Kingdom | 79.5 | 61.9 | 76.5 | 77.4 |
| 36= | 38= | University of Leeds | United Kingdom | 78.1 | 70.7 | 78.2 | 77.4 |
| 38 | 36= | Durham University | United Kingdom | 77.2 | 82.7 | 72.5 | 77.3 |
| 39 | 43 | The University of Queensland (UQ) | Australia | 76.9 | 75.1 | 80.2 | 77.1 |
| 40 | 51-100 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | United States | 76.8 | 72.2 | 80.8 | 76.7 |
| 41 | 42 | Monash University | Australia | 77.9 | 82.9 | 59.7 | 76.6 |
| 42 | 36= | Brown University | United States | 76.9 | 73.7 | 76.2 | 76.5 |
| 43 | 40 | Johns Hopkins University | United States | 76.5 | 68.8 | 82.9 | 76.4 |
| 44 | 45 | Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV) | France | 80.5 | 78.5 | 39.2 | 76.2 |
| 45 | 41 | University of Virginia | United States | 75.9 | 69.4 | 84.5 | 76.1 |
| 46= | 48= | University of Amsterdam | Netherlands | 76.2 | 75.0 | 75.8 | 76.0 |
| 46= | 51-100 | University of Bristol | United Kingdom | 75.6 | 79.5 | 75.8 | 76.0 |
| 48 | 51-100 | Nanyang Technological University (NTU) | Singapore | 76.9 | 81.0 | 59.4 | 75.6 |
| 49 | 47 | University of Birmingham | United Kingdom | 74.7 | 77.3 | 74.3 | 74.9 |
| 50= | 50 | University of Alberta | Canada | 75.7 | 65.4 | 74.2 | 74.5 |
| 50= | 48= | University of Exeter | United Kingdom | 74.7 | 71.6 | 76.0 | 74.5 |
