Why did IITs drop in the QS Asia 2026 rankings?

The drop is primarily due to increased competition from Asian universities, especially those in China and Singapore, along with weaker scores in citations per paper, faculty-student ratio, and internationalisation. :contentReference[oaicite:14]{index=14}

Are IITs performing worse in research?

Not necessarily. Their citations per paper have improved slightly, but they still lag behind top Asian institutions in research impact. :contentReference[oaicite:15]{index=15}

What does the IIT community say about this drop?

According to the Director of IIT Kharagpur, many faculty are engaged in high-impact, transformational activities (like rural innovation) that don’t immediately reflect in citation metrics. :contentReference[oaicite:16]{index=16}

How much has internationalisation affected the rankings?

Significantly. IITs scored low on International Student Ratio (ISR), with some as low as 2.5%, which hurt their rankings. :contentReference[oaicite:17]{index=17}

Why IITs fell in QS Asia 2026 while increasing in QS Global; An Explanation

Author :

Shilpa Nigam

Last Updated on : 22 Nov 2025 03:48PM

Find out the reason behind the IITs' low ranking in QS Asia 2026, despite the rise in QS Global ranking and the solutions for the same.

The prestigious IITs are losing their rank in the QS Asia Rankings 2026 in a consistent way while making a high rank in the QS Global Rankings 2026.

Competitionally, the higher institutes from China and Hong Kong are ranking highly in the QS Asia Rankings 2026. This article seeks the reason and solution behind the Deviation and Discrepancy of such higher Education Institutes, to strengthen the position of India’s most prominent institutions in the global ranking.

A total of 1,526 colleges and universities were included in the 2026 QS rankings of Asia. Of them, 557 appeared for the very first time-260 of these from China and 137 from India.

Mainland China participated in the QS Asia rankings with the highest number of institutions total of 394, out of which 3 institutions secured in the top 10 and 25 in the top 100 positions.

Hong Kong participated in the ranking with 11 universities. The nine universities increased their ranking, and among them, 5 secured their position in the top 10.

India’s 294 universities were acknowledged this year for their ranking, out of which only 7 universities were ranked under the top 100. Surprisingly, 110 institutions shifted down by over 10 ranks from their positions, and 33 improved their ranking by 10.

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