Indian HEIs tuning to global rankings; private ones taking the lead Premium

Indian higher education aims for global excellence through internationalisation, ranking, and research productivity, attracting global students and faculty for collaboration.

Internationalisation of higher education is the process of integration of the global dimension in all aspects of teaching, learning and research, so as to make it more inclusive geographically and culturally. This would ensure students are groomed into successful global professionals.

The National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 envisages internationalisation of Indian higher education by 2030, by facilitating the mobility of students and teachers and collaboration between Indian and globally reputed Institutions to lift the quality of education to global standards. In order to make this happen, Indian higher educational institutions must be accredited and ranked by reputed international agencies so as to attract global students, faculty, researchers and reputed Universities for collaboration.

There are a number of International agencies for ranking universities such as Times Higher Education (THE), Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), Shanghai Ranking Consultancy (Academic Ranking of World Universities-ARWU), US News and so on. THE and QS are more widely accepted for assessing the popularity and holistic performance of universities across the world.

Common parameters for evaluation in these two systems are academic processes and outcomes, research productivity, global engagement (of students, teachers, research network etc) and peer reputation among the institutions and employers. THE 2025 ranked about 2,000 universities in 2025 and the factors considered for evaluation include Academic Factors (14.5% weightage), Research Productivity ( 45%), International Presence ( 7.5%) and Reputation ( 33%). QS World University Rankings 2025 ranked 1,500 institutions and considered academic factors and Outcomes (15% weightage), Research Productivity (20%), Global Engagement (15%), Reputation (45%) and Sustainability (5%) . As “Reputation” contributes a large weightage in both the systems, robust processes were established by the concerned agencies to assess the same scientifically.

In the last three years, there has been an increased interest on the part of Indian HEIs to participate in international university rankings. The number of institutions that participated in THE university rankings has gone up from 101 in 2023 to 133 in 2025, a growth of about 31%. Also, the number of Institutions ranked rose from 75 in 2023 to 107 in 2025, a healthy growth of 43%. The share of ranked Indian institutions has gone up incrementally from 4.2% in 2023 to 5.1% in 2025.

It is interesting to note that the share of private universities in the ranked universities in India rose sharply from 35% in 2023 to 52% in 2025, thereby leaving the number of ranked public universities at 49 in 2023, increasing nominally to 51 in 2025. Besides, 84% of the private institutions improved their rankings in 2025 over the previous year, whereas 14% retained the same rank. In the case of only 2% of institutions, the rank dropped. In the case of public institutions, 39% improved the rank and 49% retained the same rank, whereas 12% dropped compared to the previous year.

An analysis of QS World Universities Ranking 2025 reveals that 46 Indian Institutions figured in the 1,500 ranked universities, compared with 41 in 2023. Eleven Indian institutions find their place among the top 500 universities globally.