According to the first-ever QS World University Rankings: Sustainability, which were published today, IIT-Bombay is the greatest educational institution in India. In the list of 15 Indian universities, the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) came in the 281-300 range, followed by the IIT-Delhi (321-340 rank), and the third-placed Jawaharlal Nehru University (361-380).

QS World University Rankings: Sustainability ranking is a new framework to evaluate how universities are taking action to tackle the world’s most pressing environmental and social issues.

This year, experts evaluated over 1300 higher education institutions meeting specific eligibility requirements, out of which 700 institutions appeared on the final ranking list.

Fourth rank has been saved for the University of Delhi which features in the 381-400 rank range and the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) is on the fifth spot (451-500).

Other Indian universities that feature in the list are the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR), Aligarh Muslim University, Jadavpur University, Indian Institute of Science, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT-KGP), Banaras Hindu University, Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG) and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM).

Globally, the University of California, Berkeley (from the US) has taken the lead in the sustainability as it has achieved top scores in both the Environmental Impact and Social Impact categories, each contributing 50 per cent of the overall score. It is followed by two Canadian institutions, the University of Toronto (second) and the University of British Columbia (third).

Other universities to appear in the top 10 are the University of Edinburgh, University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) and University of Sydney at fifth rank, University of Tokyo , University of Pennsylvania, Yale University and the University of Auckland.

The US dominates the rankings with 135 ranked universities (19.2 per cent of the total), while the United Kingdom is the second-most represented country, with 67 universities ranked (9.5 per cent). Germany is the third-best for overall representation, with 39 universities, followed by China with 37 and Australia with 33.