India surpasses China in QS Asia Rankings 2025: 7 Indian universities make it to top 100, IIT Delhi leads

India outperformed China in the QS Asia University Rankings 2025. As many as 162 Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) from India found a spot in the list. India witnessed highest growth in university representation in contrast with China. A total of 135 Chenese universities ranked in the list while Japan secured the third spot with 115 universities.

A total of 6,278 universities from Asia were surveyed by the London-based university ranking organization. The evaluating agency used 11 performance indicators, including Employer Reputation, International Faculty Ratio, International Research Network, International Student Ratio, Academic Reputation, Faculty-Student Ratio, Outbound Exchange Students, Inbound Exchange Students, Papers per Faculty, Citations per Paper, and Staff with PhDs.

According to the press release, a total of seven Indian universities featured in the top 100 institutes in Asia, including University of Delhi, IISc Bangalore, IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur and IIT Kanpur, among others. Notably, IIT Delhi secured 44th place and emerged as the highest-ranking Indian institution in Asia and India this year. Meanwhile, IIT Bombay’s ranking slipped to second place among the top institutions across India.

Among all private universities in India, Chandigarh University (CU) continued its streak of outstanding its performance and secured the top spot in the QS Asia University Rankings. Its rank improved from 149th in the previous edition (2024) to 120th spot.

Chancellor of Chandigarh University and Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Satnam Singh Sandhu said, “India has become one of the most favourite academic destinations to pursue higher education and many international students have opted to study here,” reported ANI.

He added, “In 2014, India ranked 81st in Global Innovation Index, which has increased to 39th position in 2025. The number of patents filed have increased by 31 per cent and touched 83,000 in 2023 whereas there were only 42,700 patents filed till 2014.”

Overall, the qualitative changes in India’s higher education sector over the past decade, aimed at boosting research, learning, and innovation are the main factors that responsible for making India the most represented higher education system in Asia.