London, 28^th February 2018: India’s IITs continue to produce impactful Engineering research but are continuing to descend down global university rankings, it has emerged. The eighth edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject, released today by global higher education analysts QS Quacquarelli Symonds, ranks the world’s top universities for the study of 48 different subjects. It is designed as an extensive resource for students, parents, career & study advisors, and education policymakers.

The University of Delhi again achieves India’s highest position. It ranks 17^th for the study of Development Studies globally. India has two of the world’s top 50 schools for the study of Mining Engineering. The Indian School of Mines ranks 29^th, while Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur places 40^th.

This year’s release indicates that India’s IITs are ranked 80 times across the 48 subject tables. Their rank drops 25 times, while it only improves five times. If IISc Bangalore is included in this group, the ratio of drops to improvements deteriorates to 33:5.

The malaise of India’s IITs and IIScs is the most prominent example of a regressive trend evident across the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2018. For example:

• On three occasions are Indian universities ranked in the top 50 of a subject table. This is one fewer than in 2017;
• Indian universities achieve 20 top-100 ranks, four fewer than in 2017;
• In total, 25 Indian institutions are ranked 142 times overall – nine times fewer than in 2017.

However, there are some successes for Indian higher education institutions. These include:

• The University of Delhi again achieves India’s highest position. It ranks 17^th for the study of Development Studies;
• India has two of the world’s top 50 schools for the study of Mining Engineering. The Indian School of Mines ranks 29^th, while Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur places 40^th. Nonetheless, both institutions have dropped five places year-on-year;
• Ten Indian universities are ranked for QS’s Electrical & Electronic Engineering Three feature in the top 100;
• The average Citations per Faculty (QS’s measure of a department’s research impact) score achieved by India’s ten ranked Electrical Engineering departments is 83.37. All but the University of Delhi score above 75/100, indicating a particular research strength in this area;
• Overall, India’s strongest research institution is IIT Roorkee, whose eight departments achieve an average Citations per Faculty (CPF) score of 80.9/100. This is slightly better than that achieved by IISc Bangalore, whose 12 ranked departments score 79.09/100 for