In November 2025, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), global higher education experts, released the 4th edition of ‘QS World University Rankings: Sustainability (2026)’. As per the latest rankings, Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D) in New Delhi (Delhi) has emerged as India’s best performing institution for the 2nd consecutive year, securing 205th position globally with an overall score of 83.1 (down from 171st spot in last year’s ranking). This year, no Indian Institution featured among the world’s top 200 sustainable universities.
- Lund University (Sweden) topped the 2026 global sustainability rankings for the first time since the index began in 2023, followed by the University of Toronto (Canada) and University College London(the United Kingdom, UK) in 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively.
Exam Hints:
- What? Release of QS World Sustainability Rankings 2026
- Released by: QS
- Edition: 4th
- Total Universities Covered: ~2,000 across 106 countries
- Ranking Parameters: Environmental Impact (45%), Social Impact (45%), Governance (10%)
- Top 3 Universities/Institutes: Lund University, Sweden (1st), University of Toronto, Canada (2nd) and UCL, the UK (3rd)
- Top 3 Indian Institutes Globally: IIT-D (205th); IIT-B (235th) and IIT-KGP (236th)
- Most represented Country: USA(240); China(163); UK(109); India(103).
About QS World University Rankings: Sustainability 2026:
Total Universities Covered: The latest edition of QS World Rankings has covered nearly 2,000 universities/institutions across 106 countries worldwide.
Key Parameters: The universities are ranked based on their performance assessed across 3 main categories:
- Environmental Impact (45%): It includes 3 sub-indicators: Environmental Sustainability, Environmental Education and Environmental Research.
- Social Impact (45%): It further includes 5 sub-indicators: equality, knowledge exchange, impact of education, employability & outcomes, and health & well being.
- Governance (10%): It includes indicators related to good governance such as ethics, hiring practices, transparency and decision making.
Top 5 Universities in QS World Sustainability Rankings 2026:
| Rank | Name of the University | Name of the Country or Region | Overall Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lund University | Sweden | 100 |
| 2 | University of Toronto | Toronto, Canada | 99.8 |
| 3 | University College London (UCL) | London, the United Kingdom (UK) | 99 |
| 4 | The University of Edinburgh | Edinburgh, the UK | 98.7 |
| 5 | University of British Columbia | Vancouver, Canada | 98.6 |
Key Highlights:
Other Top 10 Universities: Other universities in the global top 10 include the London School of Economics (LSE), UK at 6th, Imperial College London, UK at 7th, UNSW Sydney, Australia at 8th, McGill University, Canada at 9th, and the University of Manchester, UK at 10th in the rankings.
Most Represented Country: The United States of America (USA) with 240 institutions has emerged as the most represented country on the list, followed by China (163), the UK (109), India (103) and France (76).
Debut Universities: This year, more than 250 universities debuted in the rankings, led by China (42), India (26), France (19) and Turkey (18).
Top 5 Indian Universities/Institutes:
| Indian Rank | Name of the University | Location | Overall Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 205 | Indian Institute of Technology Delhi(IIT-D) | New Delhi, Delhi | 83.1 |
| 235 | Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) | Mumbai, Maharashtra | 81.4 |
| 236 | Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) | West Bengal (WB) | 81.3 |
| 241 | University of Delhi (DU) | Delhi | 80.9 |
| 305 | Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) | Chennai, Tamil Nadu (TN) | 77.3 |
India-Specific:
Total Indian Institutions Featured: This year, a total of 103 Indian institutions (including 26 new entries) featured on the list, making it the world’s 4th most represented country in the rankings.
- Out of 103 Indian universities featured in this year’s edition, 32 have improved their ranking, 15 retained their previous year ranking, and 30 have dropped.
Other Top Indian Institutes:IIT Roorkee(Uttarakhand) secured the 352nd position with a score of 74.9, followed by IIT Banaras Hindu University(BHU), Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh(UP) at 672nd with 62.5, and IIT Hyderabad(Telangana) at 792nd with a score of 58.7 in the 2026 rankings.
Drop in 9 Institutions Ranking: Among the top 15 Indian universities featured on the list, 9 witnessed declines in their rankings compared to the previous year and these included: Jadavpur University, IIT-K, IIT-M, Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru (IISc), Karnataka.
India’s Performance Across Indicators: IIT-D and IIT-KGP featured among the world’s top 100 institutes for ‘Employability and Outcomes’.
- Delhi University (DU) (ranked at 94th) made it to the top 100 for ‘Knowledge Exchange’ and IIT-B (100th) under the ‘Environmental Impact’ category.
About QS (Quacquarelli Symonds):
Founder and President- Nunzio Quacquarelli
Headquarters- London, the United Kingdom (the UK)
