IIT-Bombay has been ranked first among India's top higher education institutions in a first-ever ranking released by QS Quacquarelli Symonds, a global higher education think tank known for publishing the QS World University Rankings. Indian Institute of Science, Bangaluru, the leading institution of advanced education and research in the sciences and engineering, has managed to grab the second spot. However, IITs have grabbed seven places among the top 10 institutions in India, leaving little space for other institutions in the top-10 category.

Other Indian institutions included in the QS Quacquarelli Symonds list are: Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (rank 3), Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (4), Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (5), Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (6), University of Hyderabad (7), University of Delhi (8), Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (9), Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati (10).

The top three institutes, IIT-Bombay, IIT-Delhi and the IIS-Bangaluru, were the most voted by over 83,000 international academics polled during the survey. Among the IITs, IIT Bombay, IIT-Madras, IIT-Delhi, are the top three institutes that enjoy outstanding regard among the nearly 43,000 international employers, said the survey. Apart from that, 20 Indian institutions have received full marks in the staff with PhD, the indicator designed to identify the extent to which institutions are cultivating a highly-qualified faculty body. In the research productivity indicator, nine institutions have achieved a score between 98.4 and 100.

In terms of research impact, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, has achieved the highest score in India, followed by Shivaji University, Kolhapur. Shivaji University, Kolhapur and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, achieved the perfect score on 'faculty or student indicators'.

Despite the fact that IITs offer the best educational environment in the country, they still have a long way to go when compared to other top universities in the world. As per the QS World University Ranking released in June, no Indian university could secure a place in the top 100 best universities this year. The list is dominated by the American and European universities. Two Indian institutes, IIT-Bombay and IIT-Delhi, however, were able to secure a place in the top 200 institutions in the country.

World-class MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has made a history by topping the QS World University Rankings for the seventh consecutive year. Stanford University, Harvard University and California Institute of Technology (Caltech), all retain their positions at second, third and fourth in the world, respectively.

Edited by Manoj Sharma