Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday hailed the rising visibility of Indian universities on the global stage, highlighting the government’s commitment to quality education and providing opportunities for growth and innovation.

“Great to see India’s universities making strides on the global stage! Our commitment to quality education is yielding encouraging results. We will continue to support our educational institutions and provide opportunities for growth and innovation. This will help our youth greatly,” he said in a post on ‘X’.

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The prime minister also shared a post by Chief Global Affairs Officer at Times Higher Education, Phil Baty along with his tweet.

Baty had posted, “India’s rising visibility in @timeshighered world rankings is remarkable, driven by @narendramodi’s internationalisation reforms. A record 133 Indian universities have submitted to the 2025 rankings – up from 42 in 2017 – making India the 4th best represented in the world.”

The QS World University Rankings 2025 highlight significant advancements for Indian institutions, with 11 universities making it into the top 500. This marks a noticeable improvement from the previous year’s rankings, showcasing the increasing global competitiveness of Indian higher education institutions.

Despite the improvements, the challenge of internationalization remains significant for Indian institutions. Increasing global collaboration, enhancing faculty diversity, and improving international student intake are essential steps for further progress.

The QS World University Rankings 2025 reflect a positive trajectory for Indian institutions in the global education landscape. The focus on academic excellence, research output, and industry collaboration is clearly paying off. Addressing the internationalization challenges will be crucial for sustaining and enhancing this upward trend in the coming years, experts say.

The QS rankings are based on multiple parameters like academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty ratio, international student ratio, international research network, employment outcomes, and sustainability.

India has the third-largest representation in Asia with 46 ranked universities, following Japan and China. Of these, 61 per cent of Indian universities improved their ranks, 24 per cent maintained their positions, and 9 per cent saw a drop. Three universities are new entries.

President of QS University Rankings, Nunzio Quacquarelli, had earlier this month praised India for emerging as the leader among all G20 countries in the QS subject rankings performance growth.