♦ London-based QS Quacquarelli Symonds on 18 November 2025 released its QS World University Rankings for Sustainability 2026. A total of 103 Indian universities featured in the rankings. Also, India had the fourth-highest number of institutions in the list, behind the United States (240), China (163), and the United Kingdom (109).

♦ The QS sustainability rankings, established in 2023, assess institutions across environmental and social sustainability categories such as environmental impact, social impact, and governance. These include indicators covering environmental research, sustainability, and education, along with equality, employability, knowledge exchange, and health and wellbeing.

♦ It showed institutions from the U.K., Canada, Sweden, and the U.S. dominating the top 15, with Lund University in Sweden taking the top position. This year’s edition features close to 2,000 institutions from over 100 locations worldwide.

♦ Of the 103 Indian universities featured, the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi was the best performing, placed at 205. Overall, QS noted that India had 12 universities in the top 500, matching the number for countries such as China and the Netherlands. QS also said that this year’s rankings recorded the highest number of debut entries from China (46), followed by India (26), France (19), and Turkey (18).

♦ While this is IIT Delhi’s highest position in the sustainability rankings since their inception, it is lower in relative terms compared to its performance last year, when around 1,700 institutions were ranked. Among the top 15 Indian universities in this year’s sustainability rankings, nine saw their positions drop compared to the previous year. These included Jadavpur University, IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, the Indian Institute of Science, and others.

♦ Across the 103 Indian institutions ranked, 30 saw their positions decline, 32 improved, and 15 remained unchanged.