Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi is at the top among universities in India for sustainability, jumping 255 places to reach 171 globally, according to QS Rankings announced on Tuesday.
A total of 78 Indian universities have featured in the 2025 QS Sustainability Rankings, with nine of the top 10 institutions in the country improving their ranking this year and 21 new institutions making an entry.
IIT-Delhi and IIT-Kanpur have been ranked among the world’s top 100 for environmental impact.
Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru has been ranked among the world’s top 50 for environment education.
“Of the 78 Indian universities that feature in the 2025 QS Sustainability Rankings, 34 have improved on last year’s placing and eight have maintained their positions.
“This is an excellent achievement for the Indian higher education ecosystem and shows that Indian universities are forging ahead with their sustainability initiatives,” said Ben Sowter, Vice President of London-based Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).
“Within the Social Impact category, Indian universities can look to improve their indicator scores in the Health and Wellbeing, Impact of Education and Equality lenses, where no institutions from the country feature in the top 350. Universities from India scored better in the Knowledge Exchange and Employability and Outcomes lenses,” Sowter added.
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The 2025 rankings showcase over 1,740 universities from 107 countries and territories, reflecting significant growth from the previous edition, which included 1,397 institutions across 95 locations.
The University of Toronto is the top-ranked university this year, ahead of ETH Zurich which got second place, and Lund University in Sweden and the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) in joint third.
Citing the latest QS International Students Survey, Jessica Turner, CEO of QS, said, “Sustainability is a top priority for today’s students, with nine in 10 identifying it as important and 40 percent actively researching universities’ sustainability strategies during the application process.”
This underscores the urgency for sustainability to remain at the forefront of institutional agendas, she said.
“The progress reflected in this year’s QS Sustainability Rankings — marked by 461 institutions improving their positions, 350 new entrants, and five universities breaking into the top 20 for the first time — highlights the growing global efforts by higher education institutions to address sustainability challenges. However, despite some strong performances of universities in our rankings, there is still much to be done,” she added.
QS’ methodology for the ‘World University Rankings: Sustainability 2025’ is based on university performance across three assessment categories — Environmental Impact, Social Impact and Governance.
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