Indian Institute of Management Lucknow

How is Indian Institute of Management Lucknow ranked in 2026?

As of 2026, the most authoritative ranking for Indian Institute of Management Lucknow is the NIRF Management 2025 result, where IIM Lucknow holds Rank 5 with a score of 77.97, placing it 4th among all the IIMs in the country. Because the Ministry of Education has scheduled the NIRF India Rankings 2026 for release on 4 September 2026, the 2025 figures remain the latest official standing for the institute through most of the year. Alongside this, IIM Lucknow is ranked 5th in the QS India MBA 2025 listing with a score of 80.30. Together these two results confirm that IIM Lucknow sits firmly inside the top five management institutions in India in the current ranking cycle.

The headline story for IIM Lucknow in this cycle is recovery: the institute climbed two places in NIRF, moving from Rank 7 in 2024 to Rank 5 in 2025, even as the QS India MBA ranking softened slightly from Rank 4 (2024) to Rank 5 (2025). For an aspirant weighing IIM Lucknow against its peers, the practical takeaway is that this is a consistently top-five Indian B-school that has just reversed a dip in its domestic NIRF standing.

Year-Wise Rankings

The table below consolidates Indian Institute of Management Lucknow's verified rankings across the two leading bodies that assess it: the government-run NIRF (Management category) and the QS India MBA ranking. It answers the core question an applicant asks: "What rank and score did IIM Lucknow actually achieve, and in which year?" Read each row as a single year-and-body snapshot; the Score column reflects the value published by that body for that specific cycle. One important caveat: NIRF recalibrates its scoring methodology each year, so scores are not directly comparable across different cycles even for the same institute.

The clearest trend across these rows is divergence between the two bodies in the most recent year: IIM Lucknow's NIRF Management rank improved from 7 (2024) to 5 (2025), while its QS India MBA rank eased from 4 (2024) to 5 (2025). For an applicant, the NIRF improvement carries more domestic weight because NIRF is the Government of India's official framework and is the benchmark most Indian recruiters and counsellors quote. The convergence of both bodies on Rank 5 in 2025 also signals a stable, top-five identity rather than a volatile one.

Ranking Trajectory of Indian Institute of Management Lucknow

Indian Institute of Management Lucknow's NIRF Management trajectory has been a dip-and-recover arc: the institute was placed around the 6th-7th band in the early 2020s, slipped to Rank 7 in NIRF 2024, and then rebounded to Rank 5 in NIRF 2025, a two-position climb in a single cycle. This is a meaningful recovery because the NIRF Management top 10 is crowded with the older IIMs and elite IITs, so gaining two places means overtaking strong peers. In the same 2025 cycle, IIM Lucknow moved ahead of IIM Calcutta, which slipped to Rank 7, underscoring that IIM Lucknow's rise was driven by genuine relative gains rather than peers simply dropping out of the list.

On the international side, the QS India MBA picture for IIM Lucknow moved the other way, easing from Rank 4 (2024) to Rank 5 (2025). The two-point score difference (80.60 in 2024 versus 80.30 in 2025) is narrow, suggesting the change reflects tighter competition at the top of the QS India table rather than a decline in IIM Lucknow's underlying quality. Read together, the trajectory tells an aspirant that IIM Lucknow is a top-five institute on both yardsticks, with clear positive momentum on the all-important domestic NIRF scale heading into the NIRF 2026 release on 4 September 2026.

How Indian Institute of Management Lucknow Compares

To judge IIM Lucknow's standing, it helps to see exactly who sits above and around it in the same NIRF Management 2025 cycle, since rank alone hides how close the contest is. The table below lists the verified top of the NIRF Management 2025 ranking, with IIM Lucknow's Rank 5 highlighted in context. Use it to gauge both the gap to the leaders and the company IIM Lucknow keeps among India's elite management institutions.

The comparison shows IIM Lucknow (score 77.97) trailing the top duo of IIM Ahmedabad (92.15) and IIM Bangalore (89.72) by a clear margin, but sitting ahead of established names like IIM Calcutta (Rank 7) in NIRF 2025. For an aspirant, the practical reading is that IIM Lucknow is a settled top-five player rather than a top-two contender on score, yet it now ranks above two of the original three IIMs in the domestic framework. Its QS India MBA Rank 5 (2025) mirrors this top-five domestic position internationally, reinforcing IIM Lucknow as one of India's most consistently ranked management institutes.