London, 19^th June 2019: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has been crowned as the Top University in India as per the sixteenth edition of the QS World University Rankings, released today.

India’s leading university, IIT Bombay, has risen ten places in the latest edition of the world’s most-consulted university ranking. The sixteenth edition of the QS World University Rankings, released today, sees IIT Bombay rise to 152^nd. It is one of 23 Indian institutions to feature in the rankings this year. Four of those 23 improve their position, while 7 drop in rank.

The latest dataset used by QS to compile the tables indicates that Indian research performance is improving at a rate significantly above the global average. Across the world, the average academic produces research that is cited 50.31 times in a five-year period – an increase from 45 times in last year’s edition, constituting an improvement of 10%.

However, research produced by Indian universities has increased its average five-year citations impact from 28.54 citations per faculty member to 37.18 citations per faculty member: an increase of 30%. Therefore, though the performance of the Indian higher education sector still lags behind the global average, its improvement indicates that its researchers are quickly moving towards that average.

The rankings, produced by global higher education consultancy QS Quacquarelli Symonds, rank the world’s top 1000 universities. Massachusetts Institute of Technology is named the world number-one for a record eighth consecutive year. Asia’s top universities are the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University (both 11^th).

Key Facts – India

• In the overall table, Indian universities experience an average decline of 12 ranks. This is mostly attributable to two criteria, which are problematic for the local institutions. In the Faculty/Student Ratio indicator, which measures teaching capacity, many Indian universities struggle: only eight out of 23 feature among the Top 500; The other problematic indicator is International Student Ratio indicator, which measures the extent to which a university has attracted talent from abroad; Both these aspects reflect the challenges of the largest democracy in the world, which faces an enormous and unprecedented domestic demand for access to higher education.
• IISc Bangalore (184^th globally) achieves the world’s second-best score for research impact, adjusted for faculty size. It achieves a perfect score of 100/100 for QS’s Citations per Faculty metric, and is the first Indian institution in history to see its research cited more than 100,000 times in a five-year period;
• The average IISc Bangalore faculty member produces research that is cited 261 times in a five-year period: this is nearly five times greater than the global average, which is 50 citations per faculty member over a five-year period;
• However, due to a weakening performance in QS’s Academic Reputation indicator, which incorporates the expert insight of 94,000 academics across the world, IISc Bangalore is now India’s third-best university. It has fallen behind IIT Delhi, which drops in rank, and now places 182^nd;
• IIT Bombay’s rise is also attributable to noteworthy improvements in its research performance. It now ranks 184^th in the world for the Citations per Faculty indicator, and its faculty’s research impact ranks above the global average.

Ben Sowter, QS Research Director, said: “While this new edition of the QS World University Rankings, shows that the Indian Higher Education system is making progress in some key areas, the sector requires more substantial, sustained and strategic investments both in research and education. Experts deem the current budget inadequate for a country with an incredible potential and great ambitions.”