Quick Verdict
IIT Kharagpur (IIT KGP, in Kharagpur, India) wins on Faculty and Academics by scale: it has more than double IIT BHU Varanasi's (the Indian Institute of Technology at Banaras Hindu University, in Varanasi) faculty count and a considerably larger annual budget, plus a higher NIRF 2025 score. IIT BHU Varanasi counters with a much longer institutional history — dating to 1919 — and consistently positive student reviews of faculty quality and research mentorship, even though it operates at a smaller scale.
Snapshot
| Metric | IIT Kharagpur | IIT BHU Varanasi |
|---|---|---|
| Founded (as institution) | 1951 (source) | 1919, as Banaras Engineering College (source) |
| Designated an IIT | 1951 (source) | 2012, by Act of Parliament (source) |
| Faculty count | 928 (source) | 381 (source) |
| Student count | 15,862 (source) | 7,980 (source) |
| Annual budget | ₹1,302.45 crore (US$140 million) (source) | Not available in researched facts |
| NIRF 2025 overall rank / score | 5 / 78.49 (source) | Not reliably available (see note below) |
| QS World Engineering Rankings 2026 | 215 (one of five IITs in the global top 100) (source) | Not listed among the top-100 IITs in this source |
Note on NIRF ranks: the sourced ranking table lists an NIRF 2025 rank of "8" for IIT Hyderabad and separately also shows "8" for IIT (BHU) Varanasi in the same table (source) — since two different institutes can't share one rank, this looks like an error in that source, so IIT BHU's precise NIRF 2025 rank isn't treated as reliable here.
Detailed Analysis
IIT Kharagpur's scale advantage is stark: 928 faculty members against IIT BHU's 381, and 15,862 students against IIT BHU's 7,980 (source). Dividing those figures gives a faculty-to-student ratio of roughly 1:17 at Kharagpur versus roughly 1:21 at IIT BHU, meaning Kharagpur has proportionally more faculty per student despite its much larger absolute size. Kharagpur's annual budget of about ₹1,302.45 crore also dwarfs the figure available for IIT BHU, which isn't listed in this dataset at all (source). On rankings, Kharagpur holds an NIRF 2025 overall rank of 5 with a score of 78.49, and is one of five IITs named in the QS World Engineering Rankings 2026 top 100, at rank 215 (source).
IIT BHU Varanasi's story is one of a much older institution — founded in 1919 as Banaras Engineering College under the patronage of Bharat Ratna Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, founder of Banaras Hindu University (source) — that only became a formally designated IIT on 29 June 2012, by an Act of Parliament (source) (source). One source groups the "newer" IITs, including IIT (BHU) Varanasi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Gandhinagar, and several others, as institutes "still building permanent campuses and full faculty strength" (source) — a claim about that group as a whole rather than IIT BHU specifically, but it's consistent with IIT BHU's comparatively smaller faculty count.
What the numbers don't fully capture is student sentiment on faculty quality, and the reviews for IIT BHU are largely positive: "Faculty members are highly qualified, many with international research exposure," and "Students are encouraged to engage in research early, often working under faculty guidance in advanced laboratories and research centers" (source). Another review notes "the faculty members are encouraging, though students would benefit from more real-world projects, internship, and updated course content" (source), and separate student feedback describes IIT BHU's faculty as "not only highly qualified but also friendly and helpful" (source). No comparable review-based commentary on faculty quality is present in these researched facts for IIT Kharagpur, so that specific qualitative comparison can't be made both ways.
Verdict
Winner: IIT Kharagpur, on faculty scale, budget, and current national/global ranking — all backed by harder sourced numbers. Runner-up: IIT BHU Varanasi, whose century-plus institutional legacy and consistently positive faculty reviews are real strengths even at a smaller scale. A reader should lean toward IIT BHU if institutional history and reported faculty accessibility and research mentorship matter more than sheer scale or current ranking position — though the researched facts don't include equivalent review-based data for Kharagpur to make that trade-off fully symmetric.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Which IIT has more faculty, Kharagpur or BHU Varanasi?
A: IIT Kharagpur, with 928 faculty versus IIT BHU's 381 (source).
Q: Is IIT BHU Varanasi older than IIT Kharagpur as an institution?
A: Yes — it was founded in 1919 as Banaras Engineering College, decades before IIT Kharagpur was established in 1951, though it only became a formally designated IIT in 2012 (source) (source).
Q: What is IIT Kharagpur's NIRF 2025 rank?
A: 5th overall, with a score of 78.49 (source).
Q: Is IIT BHU Varanasi's exact current NIRF rank reliably known from these sources?
A: Not precisely — the sourced ranking table shows a conflicting duplicate rank value, so it isn't treated as a reliable figure here (source).
Q: Do students rate IIT BHU's faculty positively?
A: Yes — reviews describe faculty as "highly qualified, many with international research exposure" and encouraging of early student research involvement (source).
Q: Which institute has a bigger annual academic budget?
A: IIT Kharagpur, at roughly ₹1,302.45 crore; a comparable figure for IIT BHU isn't available in these researched facts (source).
Q: Who founded IIT BHU Varanasi's parent institution?
A: Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, founder of Banaras Hindu University (source).
Q: Does IIT Kharagpur appear in global rankings?
A: Yes — it's listed at rank 215 among five IITs named in the QS World Engineering Rankings 2026 top 100; IIT BHU doesn't appear in that specific list (source).
Related
For the complete picture beyond Faculty and Academics — placements, academics, campus life, and more — see the full IIT Kharagpur vs IIT BHU Varanasi comparison.