Manipal University breaks into top 100 universities in BRICS countries

Manipal University has broken into the international rankings finding itself among the top 100 universities in BRICS countries. This was announced by UK-based QS Quacquarelli Symonds in Russia on Tuesday and is called the “QS University Rankings: BRICS”.

Reacting to the ranking, Chancellor, Dr. Ramdas M Pai said: While I have reason to be happy, this will be an impetus to strive for even better performance in the future. Vice Chancellor, Dr. K Ramnarayan said: Our endeavor to be a world class university through education and research has begun to show result. The core functions of our university are better reflected in this BRICS QS Ranking. Now that we have a foothold, we will do our best to move up the ladder.

This is the first ranking for the BRICS countries and Manipal University is the only private university in the country to find a place in the new rankings.

The methodology used for the ranking has eight indicators. Academic Reputation is one. Based on the QS annual global reputation survey, it accounts for 30 per cent of a university’s score. Employer reputation, also drawn from the QS global employer survey accounts for 20 per cent. Faculty-student ratio and citations per paper, both account for 10 per cent of the score. Five per cent is awarded for proportions of international faculty and international students.

Papers per faculty are worth 10 per cent of the total score and staff with PhD is given another 10 per cent. “The proposal is to use a methodology that is comparable with some of the existing exercises, probably closest in nature to what we are doing in our Latin America Ranking with some additional data particularly PhD-qualified faculty,” said Ben Sowter, Head of the QS Intelligence Unit.

Country Director QS Asia, Dr. Karthick Sridhar said: At a glance, according to our data, Manipal University outperforms many Indian institutions in terms of Faculty Student Ratio and International students whilst maintaining a strong employer reputation. While improvements are needed in areas of Academic Reputation and Research measures, the management appreciates that rankings are being increasingly acknowledged as a tool to measure and determine one’s choice of a university across the world, and hence have initiated several steps to engage closely with ranking agencies and provide the most updated data so as to reflect their true picture.

Zoya Zaitseva, Project Director for QS University Rankings: BRICS, said that BRICS countries were investing heavily in higher education and research. “The new ranking will increase their visibility and allow these universities to become more recognized on a global level”.

Source: The Times of India (Online Edition), December 17, 2013