Panjab University steals a march over IITs in global rankings

Which is the topmost institution of higher education in the country? Before you mention one of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), here’s a surprise. The answer is Panjab University, according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

While Panjab University, a new entrant, is placed at 226 among 400 institutions worldwide, IIT-Kharagpur has slipped from 226 to 250 and IIT-Roorkee is placed in the 351-400 band. The two other new entrants are IIT-Delhi and IIT-Kanpur, both in the 351-400 group.

“India increases its representation in the world rankings with five world top 400 universities. No Indian university makes the top 200, but one new entrant is close to the elite group,” says a press statement issued by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

The improvement in rankings for Indian universities has come about as they “co-operated with Thomson Reuters, providing their data for analysis”. Thomson Reuters collects, analyses and verifies data, independently of Times Higher Education, which publishes the results. Participation in the rankings is voluntary and free of charge. Phil Baty, Editor of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, says the results should be encouraging for India which now has five representatives in the top 400 – a sign of growing commitment to the global rankings, a step towards improved quality.

Overall, California Institute of Technology holds on to the world number one spot for the third consecutive year, while Harvard University tied with Oxford regains second place, pushing Stanford University to fourth. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (fifth), Princeton University (sixth), the University of Cambridge (seventh), University of California, Berkeley (up one place to eighth), the University of Chicago (up one place to ninth) and Imperial College London (down two places to 10th) complete the top 10.

Top universities in Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Russia, Belgium, the Republic of Ireland and Austria have all fallen while the top institutions in China, South Korea, Singapore and Japan have made gains. The US remains dominant with seven institutions in the world top 10 and 77 in the top 200 (one more than last year). London boasts four top-40 universities (up from three), more than any other city.

The increased representation for India in the rankings follows a two-day National Policy Dialogue in May on international rankings, when representatives of Times Higher Education were invited to meet senior university leaders by the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) and the Planning Commission. At the meeting in New Delhi, Ashok Thakur, secretary of the ministry’s department of higher education, said Indian institutions must no longer hide behind the “excuse” that the global ranking metrics and indicators were not suited to them. “We must play the same game that the rest of the world is playing,” he said. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings use 13 separate performance indicators to examine a university’s strengths against all its core missions: Teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

Europe has generally fared badly this year. While the UK’s number one, Oxford, holds on to the second place in the rankings, across the board the continent’s top institutions have lost ground. ETH Zürich, the world number one outside the US and the UK, slipped two places to 14th; Germany’s University of Munich fell out of the top 50; and it is a similar tale of woe for Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland and Austria.

In another set of rankings published last month by QS World University, IIT-Delhi figured at 222, dropping from 212 in 2012. As part of comprehensive global reviews, the 800-strong annual ranking included 11 Indian institutions in all, with the IITs leading the charge — IIT-Bombay at 233, IIT-Kanpur at 295, IIT-Madras at 313 and IIT-Kharagpur at 346.

In the list of the top 50 universties in Asia, IIT-Bombay led the fall, dropping five notches to 39th position from 34th last year. While IIT-Delhi fell two places to the 38th position against 36th last year, IIT-Madras fell four positions to rank at 49 against 45 last year.

Source: Business Standard, October 3, 2013

Harvard, MIT among top world varsity rankings; Indian institutions lag

Harvard leads the pack of top 100 institutions in the 2013 World Reputation Rankings by Times Higher Education Magazine. No Indian university has made it to the list. But if the rankings were to list the top 200, IISc Bangalore, would be 130th. IIT-Bombay would be in 192nd place.

The other three BRIC nations, Brazil, Russia and China, are on the list, though. The rankings are based on the largest worldwide invitation-only survey of academic opinion, with the 2013 results culled out of 16,639 responses from senior published academics.

Indian Scene
In its latest World Reputation Rankings for 2013, Times Higher Education magazine, (THE) UK, for the first time, has released an India top-10 list. According to THE India Reputation Rankings, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, is in the first position, followed by IIT-Bombay, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Delhi respectively. The University of Delhi takes the sixth place — the first full-fledged university on the list.

The reputation rankings, a spin-off of the annual THE World University Rankings, are based on subjective, but expert judgement of senior, published academics. As to why an India-specific ranking, Phil Baty, editor, THE Rankings, in an exclusive interview to The Times of India, says that the world of higher education is interested in the country’s development, and its huge potential, and there is a strong demand from within India for data, which helps people to map the rapidly changing higher education landscape. IIT-Madras (7), IIT-Kharagpur (8), Aligarh Muslim University (9) and University of Hyderabad (10) are the other names, which feature in the list.

However, globally, not a single Indian institution has made it to the top 100 of the ‘World Reputation Rankings 2013.’ While Harvard University tops the list, it is followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University.

THE revealed that if the rankings were to list more than top-100, IISc, Bangalore would be 130th, IIT-Bombay in the 192nd place, with all other Indian institutions falling outside the global top-200.

How is India faring vis-a-vis the global education market? Baty points out that India needs to improve research capacity in universities, with better co-ordination of university research and industrial research, besides addressing the issue of low spending per student.”As a country with a rapidly growing economy and a fine tradition of scholarship, it is a cause for concern that India does not have institutions that are sufficiently highly regarded by international scholars that they feature among the global top 100,” said Phil Baty, editor, Times Higher Education Rankings, in a statement.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012-2013 powered by Thomson Reuters are the only global university performance tables to judge world class universities across all of their core missions – teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. The top universities rankings employ 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons available, which are trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments.

For the full rankings, visit www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings.

Source: The Economic Times & The Times of India, March 5, 2013