No Indian institute in top 200 in QS Sustainability Rankings 2026

IIT Delhi was followed by IIT Bombay, which stood at a global rank of 236 (a notch down from 235 last year), and IIT Kharagpur (236, down from 202 last year).

QS World University Rankings Sustainability 2026:

In the 2026 rankings, 103 universities from India made the list that ranks educational institutions based on sustainability. (Image: AI Generated)

No Indian institution made it to the top 200 in the QS Sustainability rankings 2026, released on Tuesday, with IIT Delhi, the country’s top-ranked institution, slipping to rank 205 from last year’s 171.

IIT Delhi was followed by IIT Bombay, which stood at a global rank of 236 (a notch down from 235 last year), and IIT Kharagpur (236, down from 202 last year).

Top 15 Institutions in World University Rankings: Sustainability 2026

2026 Rank	2025 Rank	Institution	Location
1	=3	Lund University	Sweden
2	1	University of Toronto	Canada
3	=5	UCL	UK
4	=7	The University of Edinburgh	UK
5	=5	University of British Columbia	Canada
6	=39	London School of Economics (LSE)	UK
=7	=7	Imperial College London	UK
=7	=12	University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney)	Australia
9	=15	McGill University	Canada
10	=9	The University of Manchester	UK
=11	2	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
=11	=3	University of California, Berkeley (UCB)	USA
13	=19	Stanford University	USA
14	=199	University of Oxford	UK
15	11	The University of Sydney	Australia

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Of the top 10 Indian institutions in the rankings, seven have seen their rankings drop this year compared to the previous edition. In addition to IITs Delhi, Bombay and Kharagpur, this includes IIT Madras (dropped from 277 last year to 305 this year), IIT Kanpur (310 this year vs 245 last year), and the Indian Institute of Science, which saw a steep fall from rank 376 last year to 462 this year.

Also Read | India’s top IITs rank slip as universities from China, Singapore surge ahead: QS Asia Rankings 2026

The ‘QS World University Rankings: Sustainability’ evaluates institutions on their environmental and social impact, and governance. It considers aspects of environmental research (research impact on sustainable development goals), academic reputation in environmental education, and impact of an institution’s alumni in the field of environmental sustainability.

Asked about the drop in ranking among Indian institutions, QS said that environmental sustainability, which measures alumni impact and staff perception of climate change commitment, is one area where global peers have been outperforming the IITs.

India Performance Across Sustainability Lenses and Indicators

Lens/Indicator	Weight	Down	Same	Up	New	Top Institution in India	Rank
Social Impact	45%	47%	0%	28%	25%	Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD)	382
Equality	12%	50%	0%	39%	11%	Manipal Academy of Higher Education	441
Knowledge Exchange	10%	50%	0%	39%	11%	University of Delhi	94
Impact of Education	7%	74%	0%	16%	11%	University of Delhi	785
Employability & Outcomes	11%	51%	0%	38%	11%	Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD)	93
Health & Wellbeing	5%	65%	0%	24%	11%	Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR)	537
Environmental Impact	45%	37%	1%	37%	25%	Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB)	100
Environmental Sustainability	15%	59%	0%	30%	11%	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT-KGP)	49
Environmental Education	17%	42%	0%	48%	11%	Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore	42
Environmental Research	13%	62%	0%	27%	11%	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT-KGP)	291
Governance	10%	53%	1%	23%	25%	University of Delhi	187

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QS pointed to heightened competition this year with more than 250 universities debuting in the rankings, and added that the rankings are comparative and do not necessarily indicate that universities are doing worse in these areas, but that peers are improving at a faster pace.

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The rankings feature around 2000 universities, with Lund University in Sweden taking the top position, followed by the University of Toronto.

Of the 103 universities from India that feature in this year’s edition, 32 have improved their ranking, 15 retain the same rank as last year, and 30 have dropped.