Even as the Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru remains the country's top university, its global ranking has dropped to 152 in the latest World University Rankings compiled by global higher education think tank Quacquarelli Symonds.
Founded in 1909 as a result of the joint efforts of Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, the Government of India and the Maharaja of Mysore, IISc's global ranking last year was 147 -- also just within the top 150 universities in the world.
All the other Indian universities that make the cut within the top 400 on the list are the coveted Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) -- Delhi (185), Bombay (219), Madras (249), Kanpur (302), Kharagpur (313) and Roorkee (399).
"This year's rankings imply that levels of investment are determining who progresses and who regresses," said Ben Sowter, head of research at QS.
"Institutions in countries that provide high levels of targeted funding, whether from endowments or from the public purse, are rising. On the other hand, some Western European nations making or proposing cuts to public research spending are losing ground to their US and Asian counterparts."
The global rankings are:
- 01: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 02: Stanford University
- 03: Harvard University
- 04: University of Cambridge
- 05: California Institute of Technology
- 06: University of Oxford
- 07: University College of London
- 08: ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)
- 09: Imperial College, London
- 10: University of Chicago.