In the QS World University Rankings 2023, IIT-Bombay achieved its highest-ever ranking of 147, breaking into the top 150 universities in the world. The University of Delhi (407) and Anna University (427), two newcomers to this tier, are among the top 500 universities in the world.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Cambridge and University of Oxford are the top three globally.
This year, QS has implemented its largest-ever methodological enhancement by introducing three new metrics - sustainability, employment outcomes and international research network - and recalibrated the weightage of three existing indicators - academic reputation, employer reputation and faculty-student ratio. The revised weightage as per the new methodology, however, has hit Indian institutions adversely.
IIT-Bombay director Subhasis Chaudhuri said, “Excellence in teaching and research is the key driving point for IIT-Bombay. Our efforts lie in providing an ambience and infrastructure that is conducive to achieving excellence by our students and faculty. Achieving a higher rank is just a byproduct and is never a goal by itself.”
In addition to 13 Indian colleges falling in the QS rankings - some dramatically, notably IISc, Bengaluru, down to 225 from 155 and IIT-Madras (285) down by 35 ranks - India also has one fewer university in the top 200 than it had last time. IISc experienced a lower rank in the reset methodology, partly due to the revised weightage assigned to its faculty-to-student ratio, which has been one of its strengths. This edition assigns 50% less weight to this indicator. As further opportunities for improvement for this esteemed university, three new indicators have been included. One of them is the foreign student ratio, where India is ranked lower than Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.