A total of 69 universities from India made it to the QS World University Rankings this year, up by 19.4% with 424 entries from 355 last year. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) became the top-ranked Indian university, in 20th place globally for Development Studies. It is followed by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad debuting in the 22nd position for Business and Management Studies, and Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, a deemed-to-be university, secured the 24th spot globally in Dentistry and is the only Indian university to achieve a perfect score of 100 in one of the metrics (H index).

This is the 14th edition of the rankings with India overall showing a 17% year-on-year improvement.

According to the rankings, the most represented Indian universities include the University of Delhi (30th), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay (28th), and Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (27th).

IIT Bombay also issued a statement on the rankings saying that it has scored an overall 79.1 out of 100. “In academic reputation, the institute’s best performance is in mathematics, in which it scores 79.6,” it said.

The 12 Institutes of Eminence (IoE), which represent just a fraction of Indian universities, contribute 40% of the country’s total entries, amounting to 180.

Furthermore, the IoE led the way with 47 of the 69 top 100 Indian positions, and 14 of the 21 positions across 55 academic disciplines and five faculty areas in this edition.

“82% of the IoE entries have either remained stable or climbed up in the rankings, underscoring the success of the initiative,” the report said.

The 2024 QS World University Rankings show that India is featured in 44 out of the 55 narrow subjects (as against 38 in 2023), as well as all five broad subject areas, demonstrating its strong global reputation.

The subjects where Indian universities have achieved recognition include Computer Science, Chemistry, Biological Sciences, Business Studies, and Physics.

Jessica Turner, QS CEO said, “One of the biggest challenges faced by India is providing high-quality tertiary education in the face of exploding demand. While there is still a lot of work to be done to improve standards, access to higher education, universities’ digital readiness and global competitiveness, it is clear that India is taking significant steps in the right direction.”