World University Rank 2026: IISc Bangalore rated best in country

Next to the United States, India has the highest number of educational institutions figuring in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2026. A total of 128 institutes from India have made it to the rankings, with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore rated the best in the country and categorised in the 201-250 rank band, reported S Lalitha of The New Indian Express.

For the tenth consecutive year, the University of Oxford was rated the best in the world, the rankings state.

A total of 2,191 institutions across 115 countries were assessed for this 22nd edition of these rankings. In a statement, THE said, “India now has the second highest number of ranked universities, behind only the US.”

The US has 171 institutions, making it the No. 1 country in the rankings, while Japan stands third with 115 institutions figuring here. The Indian institution which figures next to IISc Bangalore is Chennai’s Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, which was classified in the 351-400 band. Two universities are in the 401-500 band – Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University and Himachal Pradesh’s Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences.

The institutes falling in the 501-600 rank band are Banaras Hindu University, IIT Indore, Bhubaneswar’s KIIT University, Lovely Professional University, Kottayam’s Mahatma Gandhi University, and Dehradun’s UPES. The rankings also listed these universities in the 601-800 rank band – IIT Patna, IIIT Hyderabad, Amity University, Noida, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Central University of Punjab, Aligarh Muslim University, Graphic Era University in Dehradun, Chitkara University in Chandigarh, NIT Rourkela, Punjab University, University of Delhi and VIT University.

The universities that have made it to the top ten ranks globally are Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States (2); Princeton University, US, and University of Cambridge, UK (jointly ranked 3); Harvard University and Stanford University (5th rank jointly); California Institute of Technology, US (7); Imperial College London, UK (8); University of California, US (9); and Yale University, US (10). When compared among Asian countries alone for the top slots, China leads the rankings.