QS World Ranking: No Indian Institution in top 100, Only Three amongst 200

The QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) ranking of world universities for the year 2023 was released earlier this month. The Indian representation in the global list suggests that no Indian institution has been able to make a place amongst the global top 100. Moreover, amongst the global top 200, only three Indian institutions could mark a place. However, in total there are 41 Indian institutions and universities that have made it to the QS world university ranking list this year, which is little up from 35 that were there last year.

The QS world ranking list suggests that Indian Institute of Sciences (IISC), Bengaluru has achieved the 155th global rank, which is an elevation from 186th last year and marks the first place among Indian institutes. The IISC Bengaluru has also emerged to be amongst top institutes globally in the citation per faculty indicator. This indicates the global impact of research produced by institutes. Again, when universities are adjusted for faculty size, the citation per faculty indicator showed IISC to have secured 100/100.

The other two places in top 200 are the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and IIT Delhi securing the global 172nd and 174th positions. Notably, both IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi upgraded from last year with IIT Bombay moving from 177th and IIT Delhi from 185th position last year.

Again, between 200 and 300 top global institutes, IIT Madras secured 250th position, which is an elevation from 255th last year; IIT Kanpur secured 264th position and IIT Kharagpur secured 270th position, both standing at an elevation from their previous ranks. This suggests that among the top 300 global universities/institutes six Indian institutes could make their marks.

Between the global ranks of 300 and 400, both IIT Roorkee and IIT Guwahati marked an upgrade from their earlier ranks, now standing at 369th and 384th positions respectively.

The IIT Indore is a newcomer at the 396th position this year. This makes a total of 9 Indian institutes among the global top 400.

Ben Sowter, the senior vice president at QS commented on Indian performance as—“Our dataset suggests that the Indian higher education sector still struggles to provide adequate teaching capacity. Further expansion of provision – both within universities and across the sector as a whole – will be necessary if India is to continue reaching new heights.”

Apart from the IITs and IISC, Delhi University could also mark its presence in the QS world university ranking list. However, DU slipped its previous position of being among top 500-510 universities last year to top 521-550 this year. Savitribai Phule University in Pune could elevate from last year’s position of being amongst the top 591-600 to 541-550 this year. JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) also declined to be in the 601-650 range while last year it was in the 561-570 range. The University of Hyderabad also slipped from 651-700 range last year to 751-800 range this year.

Apart from these, University of Madras, Jadavpur University, Calcutta University, Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Jamia Hamdard, Banaras Hindu University, Pondicherry University etc. are there in the global list.

On the other hand, OP Jindal University, a public university, has improved from last year’s entry in the 701-750 range to 651-700 range this year. The Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Karnataka and the BITS (Birla Institute of Technology and Science), Pilani continue to secure the same position as of last year. Both of these are private institutes.

Chandigarh University is a new entry to the global list standing in the range 801-1000. Notably, it is one of the youngest that make into the global list, established less than ten years back.