IIT Delhi emerges as India's top university
What's the story
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi has been ranked India's top university in the QS World University Rankings 2027. The institute climbed five places from last year to secure the 118th position globally, marking its highest-ever rank on this index. This is also the first time an Indian university has matched its highest-ever global position in the history of this ranking system. Globally, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) retained the top position for the 15th consecutive year.
Institutional performance
IIT Bombay slips; IIT Madras climbs
IIT Bombay, which was India's top-ranked university in the previous edition, slipped five places to 134th globally. However, it still secured an impressive 32nd position in the "Employer Reputation" category. Meanwhile, IIT Madras climbed 10 spots to secure the 170th position globally. Other Indian institutions that made it to the top 200 are IIT Kharagpur (205th) and IIT Kanpur (221st).
National rankings
Other Indian universities in top 10
Apart from IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay, other Indian universities in the top 10 nationally are the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore (221st), University of Delhi (322nd), IIT Roorkee (335th), and IIT Guwahati (349th). Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences, a private university from Himachal Pradesh, also made it to India's top 10 list with a rank of 452nd, up from 503rd position last year.
Growth trajectory
India ranks 5th globally for number of institutions featured
India continues to be a strong player in the global higher education landscape, with 52 universities making it to the latest QS World University Rankings. This is a significant increase from just 11 institutions in 2015. The country now ranks fifth globally for the number of institutions featured in these rankings, behind the US (184), UK (93), China (85), and Germany (60).
Metric analysis
IIT Roorkee fares best among peers on citations per faculty
In the citations per faculty metric, which has the second highest weightage (20%), 11 institutions made it to the top. IISc Bangalore ranked 21st globally, followed by Anna University at 69th. Among IITs, IIT Roorkee fared best on this indicator with a global rank of 50, while IIT BHU (Varanasi), which had ranked 47th last year globally, dropped to 59th this time.