IIT Hyderabad and IIT (Banaras Hindu University) Varanasi sit on opposite ends of the IIT system's age spectrum — Hyderabad founded in 2008, BHU's engineering roots going back to 1919 as the Institute of Technology before becoming an Indian Institute of Technology in 2012. This post compares them on the metrics we have sourced data for: faculty composition, NIRF Engineering rankings, and institutional academic history.
Quick Verdict
IIT Hyderabad wins on Faculty and Academics, based on a consistently higher NIRF Engineering rank over 2022–2024 and a large, visibly diverse faculty roster drawing PhDs from top Indian and international institutions across a wide spread of departments. IIT BHU Varanasi, however, made a notable jump in the rankings by 2024 and carries a much longer institutional academic history dating back over a century.
Snapshot
| Metric | IIT Hyderabad | IIT BHU Varanasi |
|---|---|---|
| NIRF Engineering rank 2022 | 9 (Vedprep) | 13 (Vedprep) |
| NIRF Engineering rank 2023 | 8 (Vedprep) | 15 (Vedprep) |
| NIRF Engineering rank 2024 | 8 (Vedprep) | 10 (Vedprep) |
| NIRF-based GATE college rank (separate listing) | 9 (Jeecounselling) | 13 (Jeecounselling) |
| Institutional academic origin | Founded 2008, one of the "2008–2009" batch of new IITs (Wikipedia) | Engineering education traces to 1919; became IIT (BHU) Varanasi by Act of Parliament on 29 June 2012 (IIT BHU) |
| Faculty breadth (departments observed) | Wide spread including CSE, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Civil Engineering, BioTechnology, Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science, Artificial Intelligence, Design, Entrepreneurship & Management, Climate Change, Liberal Arts (IIT Hyderabad Faculty Directory) | Not available in this research |
Detailed Analysis
On NIRF's Engineering-specific ranking, IIT Hyderabad has held a clear and fairly stable lead: 9th in 2022, improving to 8th in both 2023 and 2024 (Vedprep). IIT BHU Varanasi, by contrast, ranked 13th in 2022 and slipped to 15th in 2023, before jumping sharply to 10th in 2024 (Vedprep) — a meaningful improvement that narrows, but doesn't close, the gap with Hyderabad. A separate GATE-focused college ranking listing corroborates the general ordering, placing IIT Hyderabad at rank 9 and IIT BHU Varanasi at rank 13 (Jeecounselling).
IIT Hyderabad's official faculty directory shows a large roster spanning a genuinely wide range of departments — not just the core engineering disciplines (Computer Science & Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering) but also Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, BioTechnology, Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Design, Entrepreneurship and Management, Climate Change, and Liberal Arts (IIT Hyderabad Faculty Directory). Many of its faculty hold PhDs from India's top research institutions — IISc Bengaluru, IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, and IIT Guwahati all appear repeatedly as doctoral alma maters in the directory — alongside a substantial contingent trained abroad, at institutions such as Stanford, Purdue, the University of Texas, and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (IIT Hyderabad Faculty Directory). That mix suggests a faculty body actively recruiting both from India's best doctoral programs and from strong international pipelines.
We don't have an equivalent faculty directory or department breakdown for IIT BHU Varanasi in this research, so a direct faculty-composition comparison isn't possible. What we do have is institutional history: IIT (BHU) Varanasi traces its existence to Bharat Ratna Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, "the founder of the first residential University of modern India, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), who could foresee the vital role of technical education in strengthening independent India," with the Institute of Technology formally becoming IIT (BHU) Varanasi "by an Act of Parliament" on 29 June 2012 (IIT BHU). That gives it a far longer academic lineage than Hyderabad, even though its full IIT status is more recent.
One nuance worth flagging on programme-specific strength: a comparison source notes that IIT Hyderabad's "B.Tech in Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, while prestigious, comes with higher expectations and potentially higher fees, but might not guarantee the same level of placement opportunities as seen in core engineering fields" (Collegedunia) — a reminder that institute-wide rankings don't necessarily hold uniformly across every individual programme.
Verdict
Winner: IIT Hyderabad, on the strength of a consistently higher NIRF Engineering rank across 2022–2024 and a visibly broad, well-credentialed faculty base spanning both core engineering and interdisciplinary departments. Runner-up: IIT BHU Varanasi, which is the stronger choice for a student who values a much longer institutional academic history and who has noted its sharp 2024 ranking improvement (15th to 10th) as a sign of positive momentum.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Which institute has ranked higher in NIRF Engineering recently?
IIT Hyderabad, at 8th in both 2023 and 2024, versus IIT BHU Varanasi at 15th and 10th respectively (Vedprep).
Q: Is IIT BHU Varanasi improving in the rankings?
Yes — its NIRF Engineering rank jumped from 15th in 2023 to 10th in 2024, a larger year-on-year improvement than IIT Hyderabad's over the same period (Vedprep).
Q: How diverse is IIT Hyderabad's faculty by department?
Very — its official directory lists faculty across core engineering, sciences, BioTechnology, Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science, Artificial Intelligence, Design, Entrepreneurship and Management, Climate Change, and Liberal Arts (IIT Hyderabad Faculty Directory).
Q: Where do IIT Hyderabad's faculty get their PhDs?
A mix of top Indian institutions (IISc Bengaluru, IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Guwahati) and international universities (including Stanford, Purdue, and the University of Texas) (IIT Hyderabad Faculty Directory).
Q: How old is IIT BHU Varanasi's academic history?
Its engineering education roots trace back to 1919 through founder Madan Mohan Malviya, with formal IIT status granted in 2012 (IIT BHU).
Q: Are all programmes at IIT Hyderabad equally strong for placements?
Not necessarily — one source notes its Biotechnology and Bioinformatics programme, while prestigious, may not match the placement outcomes of its core engineering branches (Collegedunia).
Q: Do we have a faculty count or student-faculty ratio for IIT BHU Varanasi?
No — no faculty directory or ratio data for IIT BHU Varanasi was available in this research.
Related
For the complete picture beyond Faculty and Academics -- placements, academics, campus life, and more -- see the full IIT Hyderabad vs IIT BHU Varanasi comparison.