JNU India's highest-ranked university: QS World University Rankings

India's research output surges by 54 per cent from 2017 to 2022; country set to overtake UK in research productivity

As many as 69 Indian universities have made it to the latest ‘QS World University Rankings’ with a total of 424 entries across 55 subjects, a 19.4 per cent jump from the previous year’s 355.

With this, India became the second most represented country in Asia after China whose 101 institutions were on the list compiled by global higher education experts QS Quacquarelli Symonds.

And, of the total Indian entries this year, a whopping 72 per cent were either new to the list, showed improvement, or maintained their positions. A mere 18 per cent experienced a decline.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) emerged as the highest ranked Indian university in the list. Under the subject of Development Studies, JNU was ranked 20th in the QS World University Rankings released on Wednesday.

JNU was also the country’s top-ranked university in the subjects of Geography, History, Modern Languages, Politics & International Relations, Anthropology, English Language & Literature and Linguistics.

Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad grabbed the next best rank of 22nd in the subject of Business & Management Studies. Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore stood the first spot in India, under the Accounting & Finance subject.

The rankings were a comparative analysis on the performance of over 16,400 individual university programmes, taken by students at over 1,500 universities which in 95 countries and territories, across 56 academic disciplines and five broad faculty areas of Arts & Humanities, Engineering & Technology, Life Sciences, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences.

A total of 69 Indian universities made it to the rankings with 424 entries across all subjects. It was 19.4 per cent higher than the previous year’s 355 entries.

In the broader Asian region, India secured the second spot in terms of the number of universities featured, trailing behind China which had 101 universities in the list.

The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB) secured 25th rank in the subject of Engineering-Mineral & Mining. Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM) secured 29th spot in Petroleum Engineering.

According to QS, India stands as one of the world’s most rapidly expanding research centres.

From 2017 to 2022, its research output surged by an impressive 54 per cent, based on data from Scopus/Elsevier, QS’ bibliometric and research affiliate. This increase is not only more than double the global average but also significantly exceeds the output of its more traditionally recognised Western peers.

“In terms of volume, India is now the world’s fourth-largest producer of research, generating 1.3 million academic papers in this period, trailing only behind China’s 4.5 million, the United States’ 4.4 million, and slightly less than the United Kingdom’s 1.4 million,” said QS senior vice-president Ben Sowter.

But the Indian universities clearly need to improve the citation count.

“Given its current trajectory, India is on the brink of overtaking the United Kingdom in research productivity. However, in terms of research impact, measured by citation count, India ranks ninth globally for the 2017-2022 period. While it is an impressive result, prioritising high-quality, impactful research and its dissemination within the academic community is the essential next step,” Sowter added. 

Front benchers 
Top Indian Universities by subjects

Subject	University	2024 Global Ranking
Development studies	JNU	20
Business & management studies	IIM Ahmedabad	22
Computer science & Information systems	IIT Delhi	63
Pharmacy & pharmacology	NIPER Hyderabad	64
Law	OP Jindal Global University	72
Mathematics	IIT Bombay	89
Medicine	AIIMS New Delhi	127
Physics & astronomy	IISc Bangalore	134
Accounting & finance	IIM Bangalore	151-200
Communication & media studies	Delhi University	201-250