India saw a record rise in Indian universities featured in the QS Asia University Rankings 2026 from 24 universities in 2016 to 294 in 2026, only behind China’s 395 institutions featured in the list.

Key highlight of the report

• Leaders: Five Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru and Delhi University figured in Asia’s top 100 institutes.
  • IIT-Delhi, which ranked 59 this year, was declared the best Indian institute for the fifth consecutive year.
• Domination: India dominates Papers per Faculty indicator, with 5 universities ranked among Asia's top 10 and 28 among the top 50.
• University of Hong Kong took the top spot, followed by Peking University (China) in second. 

About QS Asia University Rankings 2026 

• Coverage: 1,529 universities.
• 11 indicators: Including academic and employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, international research network, citations per paper, papers per faculty, staff qualifications (PhDs), and the share of international faculty, students, and exchange participants.

Domestic frameworks for Higher Institutions’ Rankings in India

• National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF): Launched in 2015 by the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education.
• All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE): From 2010-11, it covers several parameters such as teachers, student enrolment, programmes, examination results, and education finance, infrastructure.