The most recent QS World University scores for 2025 show that Indian universities have made big strides forward. 61% of those universities saw their scores go up. For the 13th year in a row, the Massachusetts School of Technology (MIT) has been ranked as the best school in the world.
Performance of Indian Institutes
The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) is now ranked 118th in the world, 31 spots higher than it was before. The second and third places in India go to IIT Delhi and the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, which are very close behind. Amazingly, IIT Delhi moved up 47 spots and IIT Madras jumped 58 spots, showing big gains. Even with these improvements, IIT Indore went down, falling 23 places.
| 2025 RANK | 2024 RANK | Institution |
| 118 | 149 | Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) |
| 150 | 197 | Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) |
| 211 | 225 | Indian Institute of Science |
| 222 | 271 | Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) |
| 227 | 285 | Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) |
| 263 | 278 | Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) |
| 328 | 407 | University of Delhi |
| 335 | 369 | Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR) |
| 344 | 364 | Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG) |
| 383 | 427 | Anna University |
| 477 | 454 | Indian Institute of Technology Indore (IIT Indore) |
| 531 | 571 | Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi |
| 580 | 601-610 | Jawaharlal Nehru University |
| 587 | 771-780 | Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences |
| 631-640 | 711-720 | Savitribai Phule Pune University |
| 641-650 | – | Symbiosis International (Deemed University) |
| 681-690 | 691-700 | Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad |
| 691-700 | 771-780 | Chandigarh University |
| 701-710 | 781-790 | National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli |
| 711-720 | 751-760 | University of Mumbai |
Global Standings
Globally, MIT is followed by Imperial College London and Harvard University, with the latter sharing the third position with the University of Oxford. Notably, the University of Cambridge dropped from second to fifth place. The rankings also acclaimed ETH Zurich as Continental Europe’s top institution for the seventeenth consecutive year.
Methodology and Measurement
The scores come from a careful study of 176 million citations and 17 million research papers. QS looked at data from 5,600 schools around the world and polled over 175,798 academics and 105,276 employers. Rankings are highly based on key factors like academic reputation, employer reputation, and study impact.
India’s Improvements and Global Representation
India has done very well, with big gains in study and working with other countries. This is shown by the fact that its Citations per Faculty score of 37.8 is higher than the global average. India is the seventh most represented country in the world and the third most represented country in Asia, after Japan and China. It has 46 universities mentioned. Some schools, like the University of Delhi, which moved up 79 spots, really stand out in the new ranks. The QS scores show how competitive higher education is around the world and how India is becoming more important in this field.
