ARWU 2025 Rankings: Harvard stays No.1, China rises, Indian universities remain absent from Top 500

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2025 — better known as the Shanghai Ranking — has once again delivered sobering news for India’s higher education sector. For another year, no Indian university has made it into the top 500, underscoring the country’s persistent struggle in research-intensive global rankings. 

The ARWU is widely regarded as one of the toughest international university rankings, placing overwhelming weight on research output, Nobel Prizes, Fields Medals, highly cited researchers, and publications in top scientific journals. Unlike perception- or reputation-driven rankings, ARWU leaves little room for improvement without sustained, high-impact research. 

This outcome stands in sharp contrast to other global league tables such as QS World University Rankings or Times Higher Education (THE), where Indian institutions — especially the IITs and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) — often show gradual progress. 

Stronger Chinese push 

At the very top, the 2025 ARWU results show remarkable stability. 

• Harvard University retained the world’s No.1 position for the 23rd consecutive year, driven by its unmatched research output and Nobel Prize-winning faculty. 
• Other perennial leaders such as Stanford University, MIT, and the UK’s University of Cambridge and University of Oxford continue to dominate the upper ranks. 

However, one of the most striking trends this year is the continued rise of Chinese universities. 

Institutions like Tsinghua University and Peking University have firmly established themselves within the top 20, backed by a growing pool of Highly Cited Researchers and a surge in influential scientific publications. 

According to ARWU data: 

• The United States has 111 universities in the top 500 
• China follows closely with 101 institutions 
• Even smaller or developing nations, including Iran, have representation 
• India, despite its size and talent pool, has none 

QS Asia rankings tell a different story 

India’s performance also showed weakness in the QS Asia University Rankings 2026, though the country continues to feature more visibly there than in ARWU. 

Leading Indian institutions such as IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, and IISc Bengaluru all slipped in the latest edition. 

• IIT Delhi, India’s top-ranked institution in QS Asia, fell 15 places to No.59 
• All seven older IITs — Delhi, Bombay, Madras, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Roorkee, and Guwahati—ranked within the top 150, but each declined compared to last year 

There were, however, modest gains for some newer IITs: 

• IIT BHU Varanasi climbed to No.237 
• IIT Hyderabad reached No.270 
• IIT Gandhinagar improved to No.300 

Why ARWU remains India’s biggest challenge 

Experts point out that ARWU’s methodology exposes India’s structural weaknesses in: high-impact, long-term research funding, international research collaboration, faculty recognition at the global level and  breakthrough science linked to top journals and citations 

While India produces a large volume of graduates and engineers, global research visibility and excellence remain limited, especially when measured against the standards set by US and Chinese universities.