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THE INDIA TODAY-MDRA BEST UNIVERSITIES SURVEY REVEALS A NEW DYNAMISM IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION ECOSYSTEM, MARKED BY STABILITY AS WELL AS CHURN

- Kaushik Deka

INDIA'S HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR IS A BEHEMOTH IN FLUX. It's ambitious, overcrowded and, paradoxically, under-resourced. Yet, it continues to produce islands of excellence amid the chaos. The INDIA TODAY-MDRA Best Universities Survey 2025 captures this complex terrain with an evaluative lens that is at once empirical and perceptive, rendering it the most credible assessment of the country's university ecosystem. Now in its 16th year, the survey has become a benchmark for policymakers, recruiters, students and university leaders alike, not just for its rankings, but for what those rankings reveal about direction, aspiration and institutional agility.

At its core, the survey offers more than a ranking. It demonstrates that excellence in Indian universities is an ongoing project-constantly being built, reimagined and, often, rediscovered. That's what the university rankings in the general category reflect this year. Among the government universities in the general category, the University of Delhi (DU) occupies the pedestal for the first time, displacing Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), which had monopolised that perch since 2018. DU, which had ranked second since 2021, has now emerged as the benchmark for excellence in the public university space.

DU’s ascent to the top reflects not only the consoli- dation of its academic and research output but also the success of its institutional reforms and improvements in infrastructure, student engagement as well as placement performance. On a broader scale, it reflects a trend where older, multi-college public universities are reclaiming academic prominence amid India's shifting higher education landscape.