IIT Kharagpur rises to 205 in QS World University Rankings 2027; Jadavpur University, Calcutta University slip
Times of India | 19 June 2026
Kolkata: IIT Kharagpur, Jadavpur University (JU) and Calcutta University (CU) are the only three higher education institutes from Bengal to feature on the 52-strong nationwide list for the QS World University Rankings 2027. While IIT Kharagpur improved its rank, JU and CU saw a dip in their positions.
IIT Kharagpur climbed 10 spots up from last year’s 215th rung among universities across the world to 205th this year. The first IIT in the country has also ranked fourth among all the IITs. While JU is now positioned between 721 and 730, down from last year’s 676, CU’s new rank is in the 901-950 band, also lower than last year’s position between 771 and 780. “Entering our platinum jubilee year, IIT Kharagpur is evolving from India’s first IIT into a globally networked institute, shaping the future through frontier research, deep-tech innovation and societal impact,” said IIT Kharagpur director Suman Chakraborty after the ranking. “Our focus is not only on climbing up in the rankings but also on creating a new benchmark for what a world-class university from the Global South can achieve. The rankings should follow.”
The QS World University Rankings, published annually by London-based global higher education analytics firm Quacquarelli Symonds, assesses universities based on a variety of criteria, including academic reputation, faculty-student ratio, employment outcome, sustainability, citations per faculty, employer reputation, international faculty ratio and international student ratio.
The problem areas for JU’s drop in ranking could be international faculty ratio, international student ratio, citations per faculty, academic reputation and employability. Vice-Chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said, “We saw a marginal dip in the rank. We do not have any dearth of internal merit and talent. The main obstacle towards excellence is the funds shortage. Recruitment was stalled for years as there was no permanent VC. We are working on improving the rankings by concentrating on areas that need immediate attention. I congratulate all the stakeholders for this achievement.”
According to QS World Rankings, the parameters in which CU’s score suffered are citations per faculty, academic reputation, employer reputation, international research network and international student ratio. “We will analyse the areas that need to be strengthened to score better next time,” said CU VC Ashutosh Ghosh.