The Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) has maintained its status as India’s top-ranked university in the QS World University Rankings 2027, rising to 118th place worldwide and earning the coveted highest position ever secured by an Indian institution in this renowned global index.
On Thursday QS Quacquarelli Symonds published latest ranking. It include 52 Indian universities, placing India as the fifth most represented higher education system globally.
Since 2017, India’s presence has expanded by 271 per cent, increasing from 14 institutions to 52, marking the fastest proportional growth among G20 countries.
The rankings documents that 26 Indian universities climbed the table, nine maintained their previous positions, 15 slipped in rank, and two institutions entered the list for the first time.
The QS rankings is led by the United States with 26 universities, followed by the United Kingdom with 16, Australia with 9, China with 5, Canada and Switzerland with 3 each, Singapore with 2, and 3 universities from Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and Japan each.
Notably, South Asian countries remain missing from the prestigious list of the world’s top 100 universities, while most of India’s leading institutions fall within the 100–200 bracket. Overall, more than half of India’s ranked universities have improved their positions compared to the previous year.
IIT Delhi climbed five spots from the previous year, indicating improvements in crucial metrics including academic reputation, employer perception, research productivity, and international engagement.
IIT Bombay dropped five positions to 134th place, down from 129th in last year’s rankings.
The QS World University Rankings 2027 feature 52 Indian universities, a decrease from 54 institutions in the previous edition. However, over the past decade, India’s representation in these rankings has expanded markedly, increasing from 14 to 52 institutions.
India is now the fastest-growing G20 country in terms of the proportional rise in ranked universities, highlighting the expanding scale, international profile, and global competitiveness of its higher education sector, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) said in a statement.
The QS World University Rankings evaluate universities using 10 core indicators: academic reputation, citations per faculty member, employer reputation, graduate employment outcomes, international faculty ratio, international research collaboration, international student diversity, international student ratio, faculty-to-student ratio, and sustainability.
Founded in 1990 and headquartered in London, QS specializes in providing data, research, and consultancy services to the international higher education sector.
