The recently released QS World University Rankings: Asia 2025 showcases a strong presence from India, marking it as the most represented country with 163 universities in the rankings. This recognition underscores India’s growing focus on research and global academic reputation, bolstered by initiatives like the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). The rankings, which featured 984 universities across 25 higher education systems, assess institutions based on 11 indicators, including academic reputation, employer reputation, and research productivity. In the rankings, the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) emerged as the highest-ranked Indian institution at 44th in Asia, with six Indian universities securing places in the top 100. Following IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay achieved the 48th spot, while IIT Madras is positioned at 56th. Other Indian institutions in the top 100 include IIT Kharagpur (60), Indian Institute of Science – Bengaluru (62), and IIT Kanpur (67).
In the South Asian category, IIT Delhi also clinched the top spot among universities from India and Pakistan. Notably, seven of the top ten universities in this category hail from India, with IIT Kanpur and Pakistan’s National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) Islamabad sharing the 6th position.
India’s performance in the QS Asia Rankings highlights its advancement in research productivity, reflected in the rankings’ criteria, which emphasize academic and employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, research output, and international engagement. While China, with 135 institutions, leads in the number of universities in the top ten, India’s focus on research is proving effective in enhancing its global standing, particularly for its elite institutions such as the IITs and the Indian Institute of Science.
The QS Asia University Rankings, published annually since 2009, recognise Asia’s top universities through a refined methodology tailored to the region. While similar to the QS World University Rankings, this approach includes additional metrics and adapted weightings to reflect the strengths of Asian institutions better.
The rankings evaluate universities using 11 key indicators: academic reputation (30%), employer reputation (20%), faculty/student ratio (10%), international research network (10%), citations per paper (10%), papers per faculty (5%), staff with a PhD (5%), and the proportions of inbound (2.5%) and outbound (2.5%) exchange students.
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This year, Peking University retained its leading position, followed by the University of Hong Kong in second and the National University of Singapore in third. Mainland China, with 135 institutions in the rankings, is the second most represented country and dominates the top ten. India, however, leads overall with the highest number of institutions and notable improvements in research output.
As Indian universities continue to prioritise research and collaboration, this robust representation in the QS Asia Rankings positions India as a significant academic hub in Asia, contributing to its growing influence in global higher education.
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