QS World University Rankings 2026

Why in News?

A record 54 Indian institutions have been featured in the QS World University Rankings 2026, the highest ever representation for India.
IIT Delhi has emerged as the top-ranked Indian institution, moving up from 150th to 123rd position—its highest-ever rank.

India’s Performance Highlights

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan hailed this as a reflection of India’s academic reforms and the success of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
He emphasized that only 11 Indian institutions were featured in the QS Rankings in 2014, compared to 54 in 2026, indicating a five-fold rise.
India now ranks 4th among G-20 countries in terms of representation—after the USA, UK, and China—and is among the fastest-growing education systems globally.

Rank	University Name	Country
1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	USA
2	Imperial College London	UK
3	Stanford University	USA
4	University of Oxford	UK
5	Harvard University	USA
6	University of Cambridge	UK
7	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
8	National University of Singapore (NUS)	Singapore
9	University College London (UCL)	UK
10	California Institute of Technology (Caltech)	USA

It is a global higher education ranking system published annually by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a London-based education consultancy.
First published in 2004, it is among the most widely followed university rankings worldwide.

Indicator	Weightage
Academic Reputation	30%
Employer Reputation	15%
Faculty/Student Ratio	10%
Citations per Faculty	20%
International Faculty Ratio	5%
International Student Ratio	5%
Sustainability Score (new)	5%
Employment Outcomes (new)	5%
International Research Network (new)	5%