Top 10 universities in India

This year’s QS Asia University Rankings have been released and a record number of 148 Indian universities have made it onto our list. 

The rankings are based on a methodology that uses several indicators such as academic and employer reputations, faculty student ratio, citations per paper, international research network, faculty staff with a PhD, international students and faculty and inbound and outbound exchange. 

Read on as we discover India’s top 10 universities in the Asia University Rankings: 

QS Asia University Rankings – Top universities in India
Indian rank	Asian rank	University	Location
1	40	Indian Institute of Technology Bombay	Mumbai
2	46	Indian Institute of Technology Delhi	New Delhi
3	53	Indian Institute of Technology Madras	Chennai
4	58	Indian Institute of Science	Bangalore
5	59	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Kharagpur
6	63	Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur	Kanpur
7	=94	University of Delhi	New Delhi
8	111	Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati	Guwahati
9	116	Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee	Roorkee
10	117	Jawaharlal Nehru University	New Delhi

10. Jawaharlal Nehru University 

Starting our list in 10th place is Jawaharlal Nehru University, a new entry this year to the top 10 universities in India. It scores particularly highly for academic reputation, eighth in India and 65th in Asia, indicating the work that the university does and the high-quality education that its students have access to. 

Jawaharlal Nehru University was founded in 1969, a relatively recent university. Its teaching style is slightly different to other Indian universities in that its courses are organised into eight schools which interact with each other rather than definitive departments. This offers students a broader education with an understanding of the context in which they are learning. It was also the first university in India to offer master’s degrees (MSc) in foreign languages. 

9. Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR)

Ninth in our top universities in India countdown is the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR), one of India’s 26 Institutes of Technology. IITR is the oldest technical institution in Asia, established in 1847 as the College of Civil Engineering at Roorkee and gaining IIT status in 2001. The university ranks highly for several indicators such as papers per faculty, where it’s ranked 10th in India and 16th in Asia, and faculty staff with a PhD, where it ranks 14th in India and 53rd in the world. 

8. Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG)

In eighth place on our list of the best universities in India, we have the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG) which also places joint 111th in the Asian Rankings. The university earns its highest scores in the papers per faculty indicator, where it’s ranked seventh in India as well as 10th in Asia, indicating the university’s productivity across all departments as well as their impact in the field of academic research. 

7. University of Delhi

Ranked the seventh best Indian university, the University of Delhi is the highest ranked non-IIT or IIE university featured in India’s top 10. The university was established in 1922 and has since become India’s largest institution of higher learning and one of the largest in the world with over 132,000 students. 

It has two main campuses in the north and south of Delhi with a total of 77 affiliated colleges and 16 faculties. The university of Delhi earns its highest scores for international research network where it’s ranked second in India and 45th in Asia. 

6. Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK)

In sixth place we have the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK). Established in 1959, the institution currently has around 8,500 students. 

The university scores well in multiple indicators, particularly the employer reputation and papers per faculty, where it scores fourth and 18th in India respectively – an indication of the substantial number of academic research that the university provides as well as the high esteem of the university held by employers. 

5. Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IITKGP)

Rising two places in the Asian rankings this year, we have the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IITKGP), located in north-east India. 

IITKGP ranks 59th in the latest QS Asia University Rankings and the university scores well for its international research network, seventh in India, and papers per faculty, 17th in India, showing how attractive its graduates are to prospective employers. 

4. Indian Institute of Science (IISC)

In fourth place is the Indian Institute of Science which also placed 58th in the Asia Rankings. The university, situated in the city of Bangalore, was established in 1901 but was only granted university status in 1958. 

The university scores well in the academic reputation indicator, ranked third in India and 45th in Asia, but achieves a perfect score in the papers per faculty and faculty staff with a PhD indicators – highlighting the university’s strong academic focus and the significance of the research that they conduct. 

3. Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM)

In third place, we have the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM). Despite dropping one place this year, the university scores well in employer reputation, where it scores third in India and 47th in Asia, and papers per faculty, where it scores third in India and ninth in Asia. 

In 1959, IITM was the third IIT to be established by the government and today has an enrolment rate of 10,000-15,000 students across 16 academic departments. The university also contains facilities such as the IIT Madras Research Park, which is the first of its kind to be established in India. 

2. Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD)

Taking second place is the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. The university earns the second highest scores in India for academic reputation and employer reputation, suggesting that the university is highly rated for both its academic output and its graduate employment prospects. 

In the last few years, IITD gained ‘Institutes of Eminence’ status, meaning that it has increased autonomy on course structures, tuition fees and academic collaborations, as well as allowing around 30 percent of admitted students to be international students. 

1. Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB)

India’s top university this year is the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), ranking joint 40th in the Asia University Rankings. The institute is recognised internationally as a leader in the field of engineering education and research, earning first place for both the papers per faculty and employer reputation indicators. 

IITB was established in 1958, as the second IIT in the country and has since produced a number of high achieving graduates who have made significant contributions in the fields of industry, academics, research, business, government and more.