Indian Universities Fail To Make Top 100 List

For the first time in 14 years, the performance of Asia’s top universities has hit a standstill in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings

2026. This time, no Indian university features in the top 100, while the US continues to slip in global standings. On a positive note, India now ranks second in the total number of universities listed, behind only the US. United Kingdom’s University of Oxford has retained the top spot for a record 10th consecutive year. Asia’s leading institutions including Tsinghua University (12th), Peking University (13th), and the National University of Singapore (17th) have shown no improvement. The number of Chinese universities in the top 200 also remains unchanged at 13. This contradicts sharply with the decade-long surge leading up to 2024, when these universities climbed significantly.

Top 10 Universities Across World and Their 2025 rank

2026 rank	2025 rank	Institution	Country/region
1	1	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
2	2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States
=3	4	Princeton University	United States
=3	5	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
=5	3	Harvard University	United States
=5	6	Stanford University	United States
7	7	California Institute of Technology	United States
8	9	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
9	8	University of California, Berkeley	United States
10	10	Yale University	United States

Have a look at Indian universities that have marked their position in the top 1000 universities.

Top Indian Universities in World Rankings 2026
Rank Range	Institute
201-250	Indian Institute of Science
351-400	Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences
401-500	Jamia Millia Islamia
401-500	Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences
501-600	Banaras Hindu University
501-600	IIT Indore
501-600	Lovely Professional University
501-600	Mahatma Gandhi University
501-600	UPES
601-800	Aligarh Muslim University
601-800	Amity University Noida
601-800	Bharathiar University
601-800	Symbiosis International University
601-800	University of Delhi
601-800	VIT University

To be noted that few other universities have marked their place in the 601-800 and 801-1000 categories. The complete list can be checked here.

To sum up, Oxford tops THE World Rankings for the tenth year. Princeton climbs to joint third (which is its best-ever rank). China has five universities in the top 40 (earlier it was just three). Hong Kong secures six spots in the top 200. India ranks second in total listed universities, after the US.