No Indian university among top 100 world varsities

Massachusetts Institute of Technology has retained its position as the leading varsity in the world while no Indian institution could make it to the top 100, according to a global university ranking released today.

According to the Quacquarelli Symonds' (QS) list, there are 14 Indian institutions in the World University Rankings and half of them are among the global 400.

Two Indian institutes have for the first time made it to the top 200 with the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT-D) getting 147th and 179th positing respectively.

The QS World Universities 2015/16 rankings also saw Harvard rise from fourth place last year to take second spot this year, overtaking the University of Cambridge.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology retained its position as the top ranked university in the world, according to annual league tables.

Imperial College London, which was placed joint second last year, slipped to eighth, while the University of Oxford and UCL also fell in the rankings.

However, despite these slips, the UK has maintained its reputation for world class higher education.

London, in particular, performed strongly, as the only city in the world with four universities in the top 50, more than Boston and New York (3) Paris, Sydney, Hong Kong and Beijing (2).

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, praised institutions in the capital, saying the city was the "education capital of the world."

"The city's education sector is going from strength to strength," he said.

"Attracting the world's top talent and producing the next generation of great thinkers and leaders."