World Reputation Rankings 2025: Harvard University retains top spot; 4 Indian varsities, including new entrant, in list

Four Indian universities featured in the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2025. However, all of these institutions registered a  fall in rankings compared to last year. Harvard University emerged as the leading institution in the list of top universities across the globe renowned for their academic reputation and prestige.

Harvard University maintains top spot

This marks 14th consecutive year that Harvard University continues to hold the top spot in the World Reputation Rankings 2025. The University of Oxford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) jointly share the second spot. Oxford University is the only highest-ranked UK institution in the top 7 list, while the rest are US universities.

IIT Bombay exits Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2025

This year, as many as 300 institutions from 38 countries and territories have been ranked by the Times Higher Education (THE). Bengaluru's Indian Institute of Science (IISc) slipped to the 201-300 band from 101-125 ranking in 2023.

IIT Delhi and IIT Madras also slipped ranks, joining IISc's 201-300 band. IIT Delhi slipped from 151-175 band to 201-300, while IIT Madras dropped to 201-300 band from 176-200 .

IIT Bombay did not find a place in the list while in the previous year it appeared in151-175 rankings.

Shiksha ‘O’ Anusandhan enters Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2025

Shiksha ‘O’ Anusandhan, which is a private deemed-to-be university located in Odisha's Bhubaneswar, is the new entrant in the list that found a spot in the 201-300 band. Set up in 1996, SOA encompasses nine degree-granting schools and institutes.

World Reputation Rankings methodology

The Times Higher Education (THE) World Reputation Rankings 2025 evaluates universities based on their global academic prestige. This year's ranking uses a methodology that includes six key measures, namely research vote count, teaching vote count, research pairwise comparison, teaching pairwise comparison, research voter diversity, and teaching voter diversity.