QS World Rankings 2026: India sees record 54 entries, Dharmendra Pradhan lauds performance

With 54 institutions, India has achieved its strongest presence yet in the QS World Rankings 2026. This year, India recorded a 390% increase— the highest growth among G20 countries. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi has secured the top spot among Indian institutions, ranking 123rd globally— a jump of 27 places from last year's position of 150. IIT Bombay and IIT Madras followed, ranked 129th and 180th, respectively. Notably, IIT Madras entered the global top 200 for the first time.

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan tweets

In a post on X, Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, praised India's education sector and said, ''With a record 54 HEIs featuring among the global best, India hits a new high in the QS World University 2026 Rankings. From just 11 universities in 2014 to 54 in the latest rankings, this five-fold jump is a testament to the transformative educational reforms ushered by PM @narendramodi ji’s govt. in the last decade. NEP 2020 is not just changing our educational landscape, it is revolutionising it.''

''Matter of immense pride that India is also the fastest growing education system among G20 countries and the fourth most represented behind only the U.S. UK and China. Confident that with NEP’s thrust on research, innovation and internationalisation, more Indian HEIs will scale global excellence in the times ahead'', he further added.

"India is rewriting the global higher education map. No other country has seen more universities debut in this edition of the QS World University Rankings - a clear sign of a system evolving at speed and scale," Jessica Turner, CEO of QS, said.

"In the world's most populous nation - with more than 40 per cent of its people under 25 - the drive to expand both access and quality is not just an education agenda, it is a national imperative. Delivering on India's 50 per cent Gross Enrolment Ratio target by 2035 will require growth on an extraordinary scale - equivalent to building 14 new universities every week, according to QS estimates," she added.

Turner said, "We see clear progress. Indian universities are strengthening their global research footprint and advancing in areas such as Citations per Faculty, Sustainability, and International Research Network. But the rankings also highlight the next frontier - attracting more international students and faculty and building academic capacity to support quality at scale".

Close to half of the 46 Indian universities featured in last year's ranking improved their positions this year. Overall, 54 of over universities from 106 countries and territories featured in the 2026 ranking are from India.

QS officials noted that in just a decade, India's ranked universities have grown from 11 to 54 - a 390 per cent increase, the strongest performance across the G20, and testament to the growing global recognition of India’s higher education excellence.

India holds the fourth position globally

According to the rankings, India now holds the fourth position in terms of the number of institutions featured, behind only the United States (192), the United Kingdom (90), and Mainland China (72). IIT Delhi performed strongly in several indicators, ranking 50th globally in Employer Reputation, 86th in Citations per Faculty, and 142nd in Academic Reputation. Five Indian universities are now among the global top 100 in Employer Reputation, including IIT Bombay and IIT Kanpur. In research impact, India also showed strong gains. Eight Indian institutions made it to the global top 100 for Citations per Faculty, including IISc Bangalore (15th), IIT Kharagpur, and IIT Guwahati.

Here's the top 10 Indian Institutes with their rankings in the QS Rankings

Globally, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has emerged as the top institution, followed by Imperial College, London, Stanford University, University of Oxford and Harvard University.