Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition, Chennai

How is Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition, Chennai ranked in 2026?

The Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition, Chennai is ranked #6 in India in the India Today Hotel Management 2025 survey, its strongest and most-cited national ranking heading into the 2026 admission cycle. This places IHM Chennai inside the country's top 6 hospitality institutes for the third consecutive year and among the top five Institutes of Hotel Management nationally, alongside IHM Pusa (New Delhi), IHM Mumbai, IHM Hyderabad and IHM Bangalore. IHM Chennai is an autonomous institute established in 1963 under the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, and is also rated #4 in the India Today 2025 government Hotel Management sub-category. It does not hold an NIRF Hotel Management rank (NIRF has no hospitality discipline) and does not feature in the QS World University Rankings, so India Today, The Week and Outlook are the relevant benchmarks for this institution.

Because hotel management is not covered by NIRF or by QS subject rankings, aspirants should read IHM Chennai's standing through the three established hospitality surveys. The sections below give the actual rank IHM Chennai has held each year, how that rank has moved, and where the institute sits against its closest government peers.

Year-Wise Rankings

The table below consolidates every verifiable ranking held by IHM Chennai across the three magazine surveys that cover hotel management in India: India Today, The Week (Hansa Research) and Outlook. It answers the core question "what rank has IHM Chennai actually held, and when?" Read each row as one ranking body's verdict for one year; the Category column confirms each is a national Hotel Management list, and the Rank column is IHM Chennai's position in that list. Scores are shown only where the surveying body has published them for this institute.

The clear takeaway is consistency: across six years and three independent surveys, IHM Chennai has never fallen outside the national top 7, and has held a top-6 India Today position every year since 2022. The 2023 IIRF #3 and Outlook 2024 #4 results show that on certain methodologies the institute rates even higher than its India Today line. For a 2026 applicant, the signal is that IHM Chennai's reputation is stable rather than volatile, which is exactly what you want from a government institute you are committing three years to.

Ranking Trajectory of Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition, Chennai

IHM Chennai's trajectory has been remarkably steady, moving only within a narrow #5 to #6 band on the India Today Hotel Management list. The institute was ranked #5 by India Today in both 2020 and 2021, then settled at #6 in 2022, 2023 and again in 2025, keeping it inside the national top 6 for the third straight year. On The Week's Hansa Research survey the pattern is even more durable: IHM Chennai improved from #7 in 2019 to #5 in 2020 and 2021, and held that #5 spot through 2023 (of 63 colleges) and 2024 (of 69 colleges) even as the surveyed field grew larger.

The one-place slip from #5 to #6 on India Today between 2021 and 2022 reads less as a decline and more as the natural reshuffling at the very top of Indian hospitality education, where IHM Pusa, IHM Mumbai, IHM Hyderabad and IHM Bangalore occupy the rungs immediately above. Crucially, the absolute quality signals have not weakened: Outlook placed IHM Chennai at #4 in 2024, and The Week kept it at #5 despite a wider, more competitive 69-college pool. For an aspirant, the trajectory says IHM Chennai is a settled top-tier name rather than a riser or a faller, and the 2026 outlook is for continued top-6 standing barring a methodology change.

How Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition, Chennai Compares

Against its peers, IHM Chennai sits in the top tier of government Institutes of Hotel Management but just below the three or four largest IHMs. The table below positions IHM Chennai against the institutes that consistently rank above it on the India Today 2025 Hotel Management list, so you can see exactly where the Chennai campus falls in the national pecking order. Read it top to bottom as the India Today 2025 order; the Notes column flags the one published score we could verify (IHM Pusa) and the government status that IHM Chennai shares with the other central IHMs.

The comparison shows IHM Chennai firmly inside the elite cluster of five flagship central IHMs, trailing the larger Pusa, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore campuses but ahead of the bulk of the roughly 60 to 70 hotel management colleges surveyed nationally. Its #4 placement in India Today's government Hotel Management sub-category for 2025 is the most flattering read of its position, confirming that among publicly funded institutes specifically, IHM Chennai is a top-four choice in the country. For a Tamil Nadu or South India applicant, it is the highest-ranked government IHM in the region and a direct, lower-fee alternative to the northern flagships.