India claims 5th spot globally with 52 universities in QS World Rankings 2026

QS noted that India's large youth population, expanding higher education participation and growing research output are helping drive its rise. The country now has the world's third-largest research output base.

QS World Rankings 2027 Global top 50 complete list

QS World University Rankings 2027: Which are the best institutes this year? (AI Image)

4 min readNew DelhiJun 19, 2026 06:51 PM IST First published on: Jun 18, 2026 at 04:30 PM IST

The latest QS World University Rankings features more than 1,500 institutions across 106 countries. The global top spot remains with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), while Stanford University climbed to joint second place alongside Imperial College London.

The rankings continue to be dominated by institutions from the United States and the United Kingdom, but with several Asian universities also improving their positions.

Among Indian institutions, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi emerged as the country’s highest-ranked university at 118th globally. It was followed by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), reinforced the claim of continued dominance of the IITs and leading public institutions in the global rankings. However, QS also noted in its statement that India’s growth in global higher education is not simply an IIT story.

QS World University Rankings 2027: Complete list of top 50

Rank	University	Country
1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	United States
2	Stanford University	United States
2	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
4	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
5	Harvard University	United States
6	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
7	California Institute of Technology (Caltech)	United States
8	UCL	United Kingdom
8	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
10	National University of Singapore (NUS)	Singapore
11	The University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong SAR
12	Nanyang Technological University (NTU)	Singapore
13	Peking University	China
14	Tsinghua University	China
15	University of Pennsylvania	United States
16	Yale University	United States
16	Cornell University	United States
18	The Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong SAR
19	UNSW Sydney	Australia
20	Johns Hopkins University	United States
20	University of California, Berkeley	United States
22	EPFL – École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland
22	The University of Melbourne	Australia
24	University of Chicago	United States
25	Technical University of Munich	Germany
26	Fudan University	China
27	Princeton University	United States
28	The University of Sydney	Australia
29	Australian National University	Australia
30	McGill University	Canada
31	Monash University	Australia
32	University of Toronto	Canada
33	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong SAR
34	Université PSL	France
35	The University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
36	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
37	King’s College London	United Kingdom
38	Seoul National University	South Korea
39	The University of Tokyo	Japan
=40	The University of Manchester	United Kingdom
=40	The University of Queensland	Australia
42	Yonsei University	South Korea
=43	Columbia University	United States
=43	Institut Polytechnique de Paris	France
=45	Northwestern University	United States
45	University of British Columbia	Canada
47	Zhejiang University	China
48	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands
49	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
50	The Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong SAR

India context: Growing presence in global rankings

India’s presence in the QS World University Rankings 2027 shows an overall change in its higher education landscape. With 52 ranked institutions, India is now the world’s fifth most represented higher education system, behind only the United States, the United Kingdom, Mainland China and Germany.

Country	Ranked	New	Improved	Stable	Declined
USA	184	3	13%	21%	66%
UK	93	4	35%	22%	43%
Mainland China	85	13	72%	14%	14%
Germany	60	11	16%	6%	78%
India	52	2	52%	18%	30%

The country’s representation has grown from just 14 institutions in the 2017 edition to 52 in 2027, marking a 271 per cent increase over the decade. According to QS, this is the fastest proportional growth among G20 nations. More than half (52 per cent) of previously ranked Indian universities improved their positions this year, while 18 institutions achieved their highest-ever rankings.

IIT Delhi retained its position as India’s highest-ranked university, moving up to 118th globally and matching the best rank ever achieved by an Indian institution. India also demonstrated growing strength in research and employability metrics. Eleven Indian universities feature among the world’s top 100 for Citations per Faculty, while six rank among the global top 100 for Employer Reputation.

The rankings also highlight the contrast between India and several established higher education systems. While 67 per cent of ranked US institutions and 78 per cent of German institutions recorded declines this year, India posted one of the strongest improvement rates among major systems. Twenty-six Indian universities improved their rankings, nine remained stable, 15 declined and two entered the rankings for the first time.

QS noted that India’s large youth population, expanding higher education participation and growing research output are helping drive its rise. The country now has the world’s third-largest research output base.