We present a ranking of the best universities in the world with the study of linguistics - TOP linguistic universities with recognized programs in popular specialties.
The ranking includes higher education institutions that are chosen by students from all over the world to study theoretical and applied linguistics, literature and language theory. Their main advantages: interesting curricula, internships and career prospects. The world's top universities are also highly praised for their research papers and language labs, some offering interdisciplinary programs combining linguistics and computer science.

Students of linguistic faculties participate in scientific research together with teachers, learn several foreign languages at once, which increases competitiveness as a specialist.
Top 100 best universities in the world in 2026 QS: Linguistics
Rank | University | Overall Score |
1 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 99,2 |
2 | Cambridge University | 92,9 |
3 | Lancaster University | 92,7 |
4 | University of Oxford | 92,2 |
5 | University of Edinburgh | 92,0 |
6 | University of Massachusetts Amherst | 91,6 |
7 | Harvard University | 90,6 |
8 | Stanford University | 90,4 |
9 | National University of Singapore (NUS) | 89,9 |
10 | The University of California, Berkeley (UCB) | 89,4 |
11 | University of British Columbia | 88,6 |
=12 | The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | 88,0 |
=12 | University of Toronto | 88,0 |
14 | The Ohio State University | 86,2 |
15 | The University of Hong Kong | 85,8 |
16 | University of Pennsylvania | 85,5 |
17 | UCL | 85,0 |
18 | McGill University | 84,6 |
19 | Lomonosov Moscow State University | 83,3 |
20 | University of Maryland, College Park | 83,1 |
21 | Peking University | 82,9 |
22 | University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa | 82,5 |
23 | Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU) | 82,3 |
=24 | New York University (NYU) | 81,7 |
=24 | The University of Tokyo | 81,7 |
=26 | Georgetown University | 81,6 |
=26 | University of Manchester | 81,6 |
28 | University of Birmingham | 81,5 |
29 | University of Amsterdam | 81,4 |
30 | The University of Melbourne | 81,2 |
31 | Macquarie University | 81,0 |
32 | University of Chicago | 80,9 |
=33 | The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) | 80,3 |
=33 | University of Zurich | 80,3 |
=35 | Humboldt University of Berlin | 80,2 |
=35 | Michigan State University | 80,2 |
=37 | KU Leuven | 79,8 |
=37 | Leiden University | 79,8 |
39 | Radboud University | 79,7 |
40 | University of Texas at Austin | 79,6 |
41 | The University of Arizona | 79,5 |
42 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | 79,3 |
=43 | RUDN University | 79,1 |
=43 | The University of Sydney | 79,1 |
45 | University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) | 78,8 |
46 | University of Vienna | 78,2 |
47 | University of California, San Diego (UCSD) | 77,8 |
48 | Victoria University of Wellington | 77,7 |
=49 | Seoul National University | 77,1 |
=49 | The University of Auckland | 77,1 |
=51 | City University of Hong Kong | 77,0 |
=51 | University of Helsinki | 77,0 |
=53 | The Australian National University | 76,9 |
=53 | Utrecht University | 76,9 |
=55 | University of Connecticut | 76,7 |
=55 | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | 76,7 |
57 | Stockholm University | 76,2 |
58 | Pennsylvania State University | 76,1 |
59 | Yale University | 76,0 |
60 | Indiana University Bloomington | 75,9 |
61 | Beijing Foreign Studies University | 75,4 |
62 | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona | 75,3 |
63 | National Taiwan University (NTU) | 75,2 |
64 | University of Washington | 74,9 |
=65 | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | 74,7 |
=65 | Universität Leipzig | 74,7 |
67 | University of Tromsø The Arctic University | 74,3 |
68 | Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) | 74,2 |
69 | L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University (ENU) | 74,0 |
70 | HSE University | 73,7 |
=71 | University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | 73,6 |
=71 | Yonsei University | 73,6 |
73 | Northern Arizona University | 73,4 |
=74 | Kyoto University | 73,3 |
=74 | Sorbonne University | 73,3 |
=76 | Fudan University | 73,1 |
=76 | Queen Mary University of London | 73,1 |
78 | Complutense University of Madrid | 73,0 |
79 | University of California, Santa Cruz | 72,9 |
80 | Moscow State Linguistic University | 72,8 |
=81 | University of Geneva | 72,7 |
=81 | University of York | 72,7 |
83 | The University of Queensland | 72,6 |
=84 | Columbia University | 72,4 |
=84 | Tsinghua University | 72,4 |
86 | National Tsing Hua University | 72,0 |
87 | Waseda University | 71,8 |
=88 | Universidade de São Paulo | 71,5 |
=88 | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3 | 71,5 |
=90 | Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna | 71,3 |
=90 | University of Leeds | 71,3 |
92 | Korea University | 71,1 |
=93 | Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen | 71,0 |
=93 | Monash University | 71,0 |
=93 | SOAS University of London | 71,0 |
=93 | Universität Hamburg | 71,0 |
=97 | Arizona State University | 70,7 |
=97 | Northwestern University | 70,7 |
=97 | University of Oslo | 70,7 |
=100 | Saint Petersburg State University | 70,6 |