Top 20 Universities in India for Postgraduate Study

India is home to one of the largest higher education systems in the world, with over 1000 universities. It’s unsurprising, then, that many of these institutions feature at the top of the main global ranking tables.

On this page we’ve compared how Indian universities perform on the world stage, using rankings data from three of the most reputable league tables. We’ve also looked at the Indian government’s own National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).

The table below shows how Indian universities are ranked according to the latest figures released by three major ranking systems: Times Higher Education World University Rankings, QS World University Rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities.

It’s worth bearing in mind that each of these rankings uses different metrics to quantify the prestige and reputation of universities, emphasising the importance of particular measures. Not all of these will be of complete significance to postgraduates, but it’s likely that most prospective Masters students will be particularly interested in the research output of a university.

Check out our guide to university rankings for more information and advice on how they work.

As the above table illustrates, there are many Indian universities among the top 1,000 in the world, with a few institutions considered among the best 500. Although the number of Indian universities ranked among the very best isn’t quite as high as traditional heavy hitters like the USA and the UK, this isn’t a reflection on the quality of the education offered by Indian institutions.

India has a well-earned reputation for excellence in STEM subjects, helped by the prestigious Institutes of National Importance (INI). These are hotbeds for scientific and medical innovation, offering some of the most competitive Masters programmes in India.

Other useful rankings to consider when choosing a university are domestic league tables. These offer more of a ‘level playing field’ for comparing institutions, whereas international rankings are comparing very different higher education systems around the world.

In the case of India, a good place to start is the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), an initiative by the Indian government to rank domestic universities.

As well as offering an overall ranking, the NIRF produces discipline-specific league tables. For more information on the metrics that the NIRF uses, check out the National Institutional Ranking Framework website.