QS World University Rankings 2026: MIT tops, Imperial College London 2nd; IIT Delhi best Indian varsity
Also read: THE Impact Rankings 2025: These are the world's top 10 sustainable varsities
Over 1,500 universities, representing over 100 locations worldwide, are included in the 2026 edition of the QS World University Rankings.
Stanford University is in third place with a score of 98.9.
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi is at the 123rd place and tops among Indian universities that have been featured in the list. IIT Bombay is at the 129th rank, and IIT Madras is at the 180th rank. These are the only three Indian varsities in the global list of top 200.
Also read: Beyond the Brochure: What to research before choosing a UK university
Rank 1: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Rank 2: Imperial College London
Rank 3: Stanford University
Rank 4: University of Oxford
Rank 5: Harvard University
Rank 6: University of Cambridge
Rank 7: ETH Zurich
Rank 8: National University of Singapore (NUS)
Rank 9: University College London (UCL)
Rank 10: California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Rank 11: The University of Hong Kong
Rank 12: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore)
Rank 13: University of Chicago
Rank 14: Peking University
Rank 15:University of Pennsylvania
Rank 16: Cornell University
Rank 17: Tsinghua University, University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
Rank 19: The University of Melbourne
Rank 20: The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney)
Also read: The power of pause: Why summer breaks really matter
Nearly 500 universities have improved their performance since last year in WUR 2026, QS said.
Of these, the biggest climber is Sunway University in Malaysia, which has risen over 120 places, it added.
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