IISc Bangalore top Indian institute in THE's Asia University Rankings 2023

India had one university in the top 50 rankings, four in the top 100 and 18 in the top 200

The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, emerged as India's highest-ranked university in the Times Higher Education's (THE) Asia University Rankings 2023. In the full rankings, which were released for Asian universities on Thursday, it stood at 48th place.

It was the only Indian university in the top 50.

In India, IISc was followed by JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, Bengaluru, which ranked 68th in Asia. Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences, Solan, ranked 77th in Asia and third in the country.

India had four universities in the top 100 and 18 universities in the top 200. Kottayam's Mahatma Gandhi University was the only other Indian university in the top 100. It stood at the 95th spot. 

The rankings were released for 669 universities from 31 regions between Turkey in the west and Japan in the east.

"The very rapid growth of Indian universities willing to put themselves forward for assessment in the international rankings is very impressive, showing a real appetite to compete on a global stage and to benchmark against the very best in the Asian continent, and the world," Phil Baty, THE's chief global affairs officer, said.

"The data shows an increasingly diverse and dynamic Indian higher education sector, with huge potential driven by the new education policy (NEP) reforms."

In the full list, China's Tsinghua University retained the top spot for the fourth year in a row. In second place was another Chinese university, Peking University, which also retained the spot for the fourth year in a row.

The third place went to the National University of Singapore, which also maintained its position for the fourth consecutive year.

The other two universities in the top five rankings were the University of Hong Kong and Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

Interestingly, the top five universities were the same as last year's THE list.

Most universities in the rankings came from Japan (117), followed by China (95), India (75), Iran (65) and Turkey (61). India showed a year-on-year increase in participation, with 71 universities in the rankings in 2022 and 63 in 2021.