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Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
IIT-D tops Indian institutions in QS university ranking
New Delhi: Several Delhi higher educational institutions are among the 54 Indian institutes to have secured spots in the QS World University Rankings 2026, which was released Thursday. IIT Delhi , which secured the 123rd position globally, led the way, making it not only the highest-ranked institute from Delhi, but from India as well. The institution's global ranking, which saw a significant jump from last year's 150th, marks its highest position ever in the rankings. The QS World University Rankings 2026 assessed 8,467 institutions worldwide, with the top 1,501 making it to the final list. India, which had eight new entries this year, is the fourth most represented country globally. Among the 54 Indian institutions in the list, Delhi University held the 328th position globally while Jawaharlal Nehru University was ranked 558th. The two universities were also among the top 20 from the country. Jamia Millia Islamia, Jamia Hamdard and Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University also earned spots on the list. Prof Vivek Buwa, head of the rankings cell and Dean of Planning at IIT Delhi, said, "These rankings allow us to introspect and identify areas that need further improvement. With the combined efforts of all stakeholders, IIT Delhi steadily improved its rankings across several parameters and has strong potential to break into the top 100 global universities." IIT Delhi performed particularly well across several indicators. It ranks among the top 50 global institutions in 'employer reputation' — a metric that assesses employers' perceptions of which institutions produce the most job-ready graduates. The institute is also placed within the top 90 globally for 'citations per faculty', which measures the average number of citations per faculty member as an indicator of research impact and quality. Additionally, IIT Delhi is ranked within the top 150 for 'academic reputation', which reflects global academic opinion on institutional excellence, and among the top 175 for sustainability. At 328 globally, DU was the next highest-ranked institution from Delhi. Vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh said the university advanced 14 places to 30 in 'employment outcomes' compared to last year. He stressed that DU holds the top spot among Indian institutions in this category and ranks seventh overall in India. "The significant improvement in our overall score — from 33.8 to 42.6 — demonstrates the university's growing academic strength and expanding global reputation. With a global rank of 328, this score increase reflects the deepening quality, impact and reach of our institutional efforts. Our faculty, researchers and students are leading this transformation, consistently producing innovation, high-impact research and fostering international collaborations," Singh added. JNU is the only other Delhi-based university in the top 20 Indian institutions on the list. It moved up from last year's global rank of 580 to 558 and now holds the 13th position among Indian universities. Jamia Millia Islamia advanced to the 761-770 bracket from last year's 851-900 range, placing it 24th in India. Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University improved to the 951-1000 bracket from its earlier position of 1001-1200, now ranking 35th in India. Jamia Hamdard ranked 1401 globally and held the 53rd position in India.
Indian Express
a day ago
- Business
- Indian Express
How IIT Delhi got back to top spot among Indian institutions in QS rankings after 8 yrs
A strategic push to expand global research ties, aggressive faculty hiring, including special drives for SC/ST and women candidates, and a sharpened focus on sustainability and inclusion have propelled IIT Delhi to its highest-ever QS World University Rankings position. Boosted by an overseas campus in Abu Dhabi and major infrastructure upgrades under the University Grants Commission's Institute of Eminence scheme, the institute this year saw gains across key metrics like employer reputation, citations, and international research network, resulting in a 27-spot leap to rank 123 globally this year. For the first time in eight years, IIT Delhi has emerged as the highest-ranked Indian institution in the QS 2026 rankings, overtaking IIT Bombay, which had held the top spot in six of the last ten editions. IIT Delhi now stands at 123rd rank globally, up from 150 last year, while IIT Bombay has dropped from 118 to 129. Over the past decade, the two IITs, along with IISc Bangalore, have consistently dominated the top three positions among Indian institutions. According to higher education analytics firm QS, IIT Delhi showed 'notable progress in employer reputation (+23 places), citations per faculty (+40), employer outcomes (+21), and especially in sustainability, where the institution rose by an impressive 252 places.' The agency added that this reflects 'both genuine improvements and more accurate data reporting'. Speaking to The Indian Express, Prof. Vivek Buwa, Dean of Planning and head of rankings at IIT Delhi, explained how the reputation indicators work. 'QS writes to a large pool of academic referees and employers worldwide and seeks responses on the suitability of IIT Delhi graduates, how market-ready or tech-ready they are, and whether employers would like to hire from IIT Delhi. This year, the responses reflected an uptick in our reputation, which has been improving gradually year on year,' Buwa said. Among the biggest contributing factors this year was the institute's score in sustainability. 'Sustainability has three verticals: environmental governance on campus, how much of your power comes from renewable sources, and how inclusive and diverse your institution is,' said Buwa. 'We've built up our Office of Diversity and Inclusion, created support systems for physically challenged and socially disadvantaged students, and ensured student representation in academic governance. All of this feeds into the QS sustainability criteria.' In a separate QS Sustainability ranking published last November, IIT Delhi rose from 386 to 179 — the highest rank among Indian institutions. IIT Delhi has also intensified its international research footprint. 'In the last five years, we've supported 135 bilateral research projects using institute resources, which have led to joint publications with leading global institutions,' Buwa said. 'About 25–30% of our 4,000-plus annual publications now involve international co-authors. That's helped boost our citation impact and research visibility.' The faculty-student ratio, another area of improvement, has benefited from aggressive recruitment. 'We've been hiring actively, including through special drives for SC/ST candidates. Hiring is a slow process, but even modest gains here help,' he said. According to the QS data, IIT Delhi scored better than IIT Bombay on several metrics this year: citations per faculty (93.1 vs 82.9), international student diversity (6.3 vs 1.5), international research network (66.9 vs 46.6), and sustainability (79.9 vs 75.2). IIT Bombay, however, continued to lead in academic reputation, employer reputation, and employment outcomes. Buwa added that the gains were also the result of better data submission. 'We always had a strong research network, but that wasn't fully captured earlier. This time, we were more careful in providing the right and required information to QS.' He also credited the institute's enhanced research infrastructure. 'As an Institute of Eminence, we received about ₹1,000 crore, of which ₹200–250 crore was used to set up high-end research facilities,' he said. 'In addition, we generate ₹300–400 crore annually through sponsored R&D with companies and government bodies. These investments are now showing results through stronger publications and research impact.' Another important milestone has been the launch of the institute's Abu Dhabi campus in 2024. 'With strong support from the UAE and Indian governments, we've been able to develop the campus quickly and launch multiple programmes. While data from that campus doesn't feed directly into our QS scores, it has helped build IIT Delhi's international visibility and reputation,' Buwa said. All of this, he added, contributes to the institute's strategic goals. 'In my view, these efforts across sustainability, global collaboration, infrastructure, and inclusion are all starting to converge. That's what led to this year's QS rank improvement.'
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Business
- Indian Express
QS rankings: IIT Delhi jumps 27 ranks, tops India list, is 123 globally
For the first time in eight years, IIT Delhi emerged as the highest-ranked Indian institution in the QS World University Rankings 2026, trumping IIT Bombay, which had reigned supreme among the country's institutions in six editions of these rankings over the past decade. Standing at 123 this year, IIT Delhi jumped 27 ranks compared to 150 last year. In contrast, IIT Bombay dropped 11 ranks to 129. With no Indian institution having made it to the global top 100 in these rankings so far, IIT Bombay's 118 last year is the closest the country's institutions have been to that mark. Globally, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) topped the list for the 14th year, followed by Imperial College London, Stanford University, University of Oxford and Harvard University. For the number of institutions on the list overall, India ranked fourth (54) after the USA (192), the UK (90) and China (72). Over the past decade, IITs Bombay and Delhi, and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, have stood in the top three positions among Indian institutions. The last time IIT Delhi was the highest ranked was in QS 2018 (172), while IISc was top-ranked in 2023 (155), and in 2016 and 2017. In all other years over the past decade, IIT Bombay topped its Indian peers. This year, IIT Delhi's performance has been buoyed by an improvement across certain metrics. In response to questions, QS said that IIT Delhi made 'notable progress in Employer Reputation (+23 places), Citations per Faculty (+40), Employer Outcomes (+21), and especially in Sustainability, where the institution rose by an impressive 252 places.' It said: 'The substantial gain in Sustainability reflects both genuine improvements and more accurate data reporting.' IIT Delhi scored better than IIT Bombay on metrics like citations per faculty (93.1 Delhi vs 82.9 Bombay), international student diversity (6.3 Delhi vs 1.5 Bombay), international research network (66.9 Delhi vs 46.6 Bombay) and sustainability (79.9 Delhi vs 75.2 Bombay). QS described sustainability as 'our newest metric', which is 'still evolving'. 'It comprises over 50 indicators, with data coming from a mix of university submissions (which are subsequently validated by QS), public sources, bibliometric databases, and survey results. Many universities are still in the process of adapting to this complex framework and refining their reporting practices,' it said. IIT Bombay scored better than IIT Delhi on metrics like academic reputation, employer reputation and employment outcomes – 72.6 vs 50.5, for instance, on employment outcomes. Prof Vivek Buwa, Dean (Planning) and head of the rankings cell at IIT Delhi, highlighted the institute's performance on the key parameters listed. On citations, he said: 'Some of the importance or success of publications of our colleagues and students is how many people are using it or citing it in their work. That is determined by citations per faculty… Over the years, IIT has advanced significantly in the research ecosystem — IIT is an Institution of Eminence. That status and the funding it received helped. With that grant, we set up equipment worth Rs 200-300 crore. The research facilities have helped with publications in good journals.' Buwa said, 'The institute has started bilateral research collaborations with universities in different parts of the world. That has led to international visibility, and joint publications with international universities. That has also helped the institute.' In the global rankings, the IITs dominate the top 10 Indian institutions. In addition to IIT Delhi and Bombay, IIT Madras (ranked 180, up from 227 last year) is the only other Indian institution to feature in the top 200 ranks globally. It has made it to the top 200 for the first time. The others in the top 10 nationally are IIT Kharagpur (215), IIT Kanpur (222), IIT Guwahati (334) and IIT Roorkee (339). Apart from the seven IITs, the Indian Institute of Science (219, down from 211 last year), Delhi University (328, same as last year), and Anna University (465, a sharp drop from 383 last year) are among the institutions in the list. Of the ten, all of which are public institutions, five have seen an improvement in rank compared to last year, four saw a drop. According to global higher education analysts QS Quacquarelli Symonds, the number of Indian institutions in the rankings has seen a 390% increase over the past decade — from 11 in 2015 to 54 this year, up from 46 last year. With eight new institutions from India appearing in the rankings, this is the most that any country has added to the list this year, according to QS. Globally, over 1,500 institutions made it to the rankings this year. Of the eight new Indian institutions on the list this year, seven are private, with IIT Gandhinagar (rank 801-850) being the exception. Ashoka University and Shiv Nadar University — both with a rank of 1201-1400 — Christ (Deemed to be University) in Bengaluru (1401+), Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (1001-1200), and Lovely Professional University (901-950) are among the other institutions on the list. Asked about the new Indian institutions this year, QS said: 'This increase is the result of a combination of factors. Some of these institutions submitted data to QS for the first time, while others may have participated previously but only met the full eligibility and inclusion criteria this year.' Some Indian institutions made it to the top 100 only for certain metrics. In terms of faculty citations, the metric with the second highest weightage (20%), eight institutions made the cut, with the Indian Institute of Science ranking 15 globally, a drop of four ranks from last year. Anna University followed with a global rank of 23. Among the IITs, IIT BHU (Varanasi) performed best on this indicator, ranking 47 globally. On employment reputation, which carries a 15% weightage in the overall score, IIT Bombay fared best among Indian institutions, with a global rank of 39. While five Indian institutions were in the global top 100 for this metric, only two made it to the top 100 in employment outcomes (weightage of 5%) — University of Delhi and University of Mumbai. However, on academic reputation, which carries the highest weightage (30%), no Indian institution made it to the global top 100. Of the 46 Indian institutions that featured in last year's rankings, only five saw an improvement in their global ranking on this metric — IITs Delhi, Bombay, Madras and Kanpur, and Chandigarh University. Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) performed the same, while the rest saw a decline.
