IISc, IITs among 31 Indian institutes ranked best in the world

At least 31 Indian institutes have been ranked among the best in the world, according to the latest Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore is the top-ranked Indian institute in the list released on Thursday.

The list, which contains 978 universities from 70 countries, was formulated through an independent audit by professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The number one rank in the list has been accorded to Oxford University, which has become the first university from the United Kingdom to feature first in THE rankings in around 12 years.

A total of seven IITs have featured in the list including IIT-Bombay (350 to 400 band) and IIT-Delhi (401 to 500 band), other IITs in the list include the ones in Kanpur, Madras, Kharagpur, Roorkee and Guwahati.

There are fourteen new entries from India in this year's THE list, which include National Institute of Technology (Rourkela), Sri Venkateswara University, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Tezpur University.

"It is encouraging that the Indian government has the same ambition to create world-class universities and that its leading institutions are already edging towards the world top 200," said Phil Baty, editor of the THE World University Rankings.

The top ten universities in the list feature seven institutes from the United States and three from the UK. Oxford University is followed by California Institute of Technology, Cambridge University, Imperial College of London, and seven other universities from US. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) is the only university outside UK and US to feature in the top 10 at the 9th position. Two institutes are placed at the tenth spot.