
IISc among 4 Indian institutes in world reputation rankings 2025 list
Among the four Indian institutes recognised in the Times Higher Education global reputation rankings, all of them have seen a drop in their standings compared to the previous list, in 2023
Four Indian institutes feature in the latest Times Higher Education (THE) World Reputation Rankings 2025, revealing the top universities for academic reputation and prestige globally.
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“This year, we have ranked 300 institutions from 38 countries and territories using a revamped methodology,” Times Higher Education said.
Drop in rankings
Among the four Indian institutes recognised in the global reputation rankings, all of them have seen a drop in their standings compared to the previous list, in 2023. Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru is the top institute in India.
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The other three in the list are – Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, and a new entrant – Siksha 'O' Anusandhan (Bhubaneswar, Odisha). All four feature in 201-300 rankings.
IISc, Bengaluru was ranked 101-125 in 2023 while IIT Delhi was ranked 151-175 while IIT Madras was in the 176-200 rankings last time.
Harvard University No. 1 again
For the 14th year running, Harvard University tops the reputation ranking, closely followed, in joint-second place, by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Oxford – which has topped the overall THE World University Rankings for the past nine years. It is the highest reputation rank for a UK institution in a decade, with the rise suggesting that its prestige for academic excellence is finally starting to catch up with its performance, THE said.
Inside the top 10 are Stanford University (joint fourth with the University of Cambridge) and Ivy Leaguers Princeton (seventh) and Yale (ninth) universities, as well as China’s Tsinghua University (eighth) and Japan’s The University of Tokyo (10th) – the latter 18 places higher than its 28th world rankings finish.
The methodology to rank the institutes were based on six major indicators – research vote count, teaching vote count, research pairwise comparison, teaching pairwise comparison, research voter diversity, and teaching voter diversity.
Indian institutions in Times Higher Education (THE) World Reputation Rankings 2025 list
Global Rank 201-300: Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru (India Rank 1); Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (2); Indian Institute of Technology Madras (3); Siksha 'O' Anusandhan (4).