IIT Bombay top Indian educational institute, 149th globally: QS Rankings

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, emerged as India’s highest-ranked educational institute, showed the QS World Rankings 2024 released on Wednesday. Globally, it was ranked 149th and was the only such Indian institute in the top 150. However, it is the highest rank the institute has ever attained.

IIT Bombay showed an improvement from last year’s QS world rankings when it took the 172nd spot.

It was followed by IIT Delhi (ranked 197th globally), slipping from 174th last year. These were the only two institutes in the top 200 on the list.

At the third spot was the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, ranked 225th globally. It slipped sharply from 155th place last year.

The rankings were based on nine indicators, including citations per faculty, employment outcomes, employer reputation, academic reputation, faculty-student ratio, sustainability, international research network, international faculty ratio and international student ratio.

Globally, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Cambridge retained the top two spots. They were followed by the University of Oxford, which rose one rank.

Interestingly, the US and the United Kingdom (UK) had four institutes, each in the top 10 rankings. Switzerland’s ETH Zurich and Singapore’s National University of Singapore were the other two institutes at the seventh and eighth spots, respectively.

NUS has joined the top 10 rankings for the first time. 

In India, only six institutes featured in the top 300 rankings. These included IIT Kharagpur (271), IIT Kanpur (278) and IIT Madras (285).

There were 11 Indian institutes in the top 500. Apart from the ones mentioned above, the list included IIT Guwahati (364), IIT Roorkee (369), University of Delhi (407), Anna University (427) and IIT Indore (454).

The rankings further highlighted that the Indian higher education system was the seventh most represented globally, with 45 universities on the list. It ranked third in Asia, after China (71) and Japan (52).

“To enhance its global standing, India should focus on attracting international students, fostering international collaborations, promoting diversity in faculty, and prioritising sustainability efforts,” the report said. “By addressing these areas, India can further elevate its higher education system and solidify its position on the international stage.”

(SourceL QS WUR 2024)