Rankings are just numbers that don’t justify the overall experience an institute offers. Nevertheless, they serve as a metric for comparison. IIT Madras is among the best in the world in this regard. Here is some info:
#1 in India for 10 consecutive years in Engineering, and #1 Overall for 7 consecutive years, according to the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2025 of the Ministry of Education. No other institution has held the top engineering spot for every year since NIRF was introduced in 2016 — making this a milestone unique to IIT Madras in Indian education history. The 2025 score in Engineering stands at 88.72.
#1 in India in Innovations (NIRF 2025), improving from #2 the previous year. This category recognises institutions for their contribution to entrepreneurship and innovation — a fitting recognition given that IIT Madras incubated more than 100 startups in 2024-25 alone and filed 417 patents in the same year.
#2 in India in Research Institutions (NIRF 2025), behind only the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore — affirming the institute's standing as one of India's foremost research universities.
#1 in Sustainability Development Goals (NIRF 2025) — a brand new category introduced this year, which IIT Madras topped in its debut edition.
#180 in the world according to QS World University Rankings 2026 — a jump of 47 places from #227 the previous year, and the first time IIT Madras has broken into the global top 200. This is the highest global rank the institute has ever achieved. Among Indian institutions, it ranks 3rd, behind IIT Delhi (#123) and IIT Bombay (#129).
IITM is an Institute of Eminence (IoE). The IoE Scheme was launched by the Government of India to empower higher educational institutions and help them become world-class teaching and research institutions. IITM shares this distinction with only a select group of institutions in the country and has consistently used it to deepen research infrastructure and global partnerships.
Touted to be one of the best places to learn in the country for decades, IIT Madras has consistently demonstrated excellence in producing quality engineers for society, a trend that undoubtedly will persist for years to come.
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