Back11 Indian institutions in rankings of best universities in emerging nations
Not one Indian institution found place in top 20, the highest ranking Indian university being IISc, Bangalore, which came in at 25
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Eleven Indian institutions have found a place in the latest Times Higher Education (THE) rankings of the best universities in emerging economies, but the country’s performance paled in comparison with that of China—a likely spur for government measures to develop an indigenous system to measure their standards.
Peking University of China leads the top 100 list of universities from Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and emerging nations compiled by the education research firm. China cemented its dominance of the rankings with 27 of its institutions finding a place in the list, followed by Taiwan with 19.
Not one Indian institution found a place in the top 20, the highest ranking Indian university being the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, which came in at 25.
India’s poor performance in global rankings of educational institutions has been a sore point with policy makers. Just four institutions from the country made it to the top 400 and none to the top 200 in the THE World University Ranking released earlier this year.
“India is starting to show its potential in these rankings, increasing its overall representation in this new top 100 list to 11, from 10 last year. Only China and Taiwan have more top 100 institutions than India, which remains ahead of Russia and Brazil among the giant developing economies," said Phil Baty, editor of THE.
That’s poor consolation for the country, which is making efforts to put in place its own system to measure the performance of Indian institutions modelled on the world university rankings of London-based THE. Although Indian universities have been improving their rankings relative to earlier years, the sense in the government is that the process followed in compiling the lists is flawed.
“We have initiated the process for setting up our own mechanism for developing a credible international ranking for our own institutions and of other countries," said an official at the human resource development (HRD) ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official said a committee had been set up by the ministry with representation from the elite Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and industry experts to develop a globally competitive methodology and identify an agency to compile the rankings.
“Yes, it’s on its way. IITs and other experts are deliberating on this for last few months as per the direction of the HRD ministry," confirmed Sidh Nath Singh, deputy director at IIT-Delhi.
To be sure, there were some silver linings for India in the latest list of rankings of emerging nation universities. IISc-Bangalore and IIT-Bombay made it to the top 40 in the first year they entered the list.
IIT-Bombay was ranked 37, IIT-Roorkee 38 and Panjab University 39 (dropping from 13 last year). IIT-Madras and IIT-Delhi were ranked 44 and 46, respectively, lower than in the previous year. Jadavpur University, which was joint 47 last year, dropped out of the top 100.
“Several Indian institutions have actually lost ground compared with last year. So there is clearly no room for any complacency," Baty said. “The good news is that by engaging with the global rankings and sharing performance data to benchmark themselves against the tough global standards...India’s leading institutions have shown a hunger for further development and for sharing best practices."
“If this is backed by a government-led commitment to support India’s top universities to compete on the global stage, with sufficient funding and reforms, there would be plenty of room for optimism," he added.
The IISc director’s office declined to comment. IIT-Delhi said the drop in its ranking was not a major issue.
“Ranking does play a role but its not the only critical factor," said Singh, its deputy director. “Every agency has their own way of doing some ranking, which may not be suitable to an Indian context like internationalization in campus. We have a national responsibility."
This makes it important to have an Indian agency with a global outlook to measure the performance of local institutions of higher learning, he said.
Gautam Barua, a former director of IIT-Guwahati, said India should consult international ranking agencies like THE and QS, but forming an indigenous agency to measure the performance of Indian institutions is an imperative.
“Benchmarking is good as it puts pressure to perform. But we have to be cautious that some may have their own agenda and may have some commercial motivation," said Barua. “These days, to improve ranking you need to do marketing, which is not a good situation," he added.
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