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Business News/ Education / News/  India breaks into list of top 100 newer varsities
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India breaks into list of top 100 newer varsities

IIT-Guwahati ranks 87 in list of top varsities that are less than 50 years old released by Times Higher Education

The absence of Indian universities, including its much vaunted IITs from global rankings has become a sore point in India. Photo: MintPremium
The absence of Indian universities, including its much vaunted IITs from global rankings has become a sore point in India. Photo: Mint

New Delhi: India has finally broken into one of the top 100 lists of the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) world university rankings.

The Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, comes in at 87 in a list of top universities that are less than 50 years old released by Times Higher Education on Wednesday.

The absence of Indian universities, including its much vaunted IITs from global rankings has become a sore point in India, with President Pranab Mukherjee referring to it, most recently on Wednesday, and the human resources ministry setting up a committee to look into the issue.

“There has been a great deal of soul searching in India over the fact that none of its universities make the World University Rankings’ top 200—a serious concern given the country’s great intellectual history and growing social and economic influence," said Phil Baty, rankings editor of Times Higher Education in an email.

“But this new analysis, which examines the next generation of global university stars, should be encouraging. Of the ‘BRICS’ nations, Russia, mainland China and South Africa do not make the grade, so it is cause for optimism that the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati breaks into the top 100," he said.

L. Konwar, assistant registrar of IIT-Guwahati said that though the school does not have full details of the new findings, “the ranking is a recognition of the good work done over the years". The engineering school was founded in 1994.

Times Higher Education said that the fresh ranking “looks to the future by examining a new breed of global universities—those that have managed to join the world elite in a matter of decades rather than centuries, and those with the potential to become the next generation’s Harvard or Oxford".

For the third year in a row, South Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology (Postech) leads the list, followed by Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology again from South Korea. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is ranked fourth and Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, fifth.

On Wednesday, while speaking at a function in Manipur University, President Mukherjee said: “If India has to be one of the front ranking nations in the world, the way ahead is only through a robust education system."

“Yet, if we undertake an honest analysis of the state of higher education in our country today, it is easy to decipher that many higher academic institutions lack the quality to produce graduates for the global market. Not a single Indian university figures in the list of top 200 universities in the world," he said.

India does not have a single institute in the top 200 rankings in either the Times Higher Education world university rankings or the QS world ranking.

Rohin Kapoor, senior manager, education practice at consulting company Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India, said that several top Indian institutions can get into the top 200 list provided they follow the ranking process. Universities need to take rankings seriously, he added, because they build credibility and attract foreign students.

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Published: 01 May 2014, 07:42 AM IST
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