Three Indian varsities in the top 400, but overall poor standing continues

Led by the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, three Indian universities made it to the top 400 in global rankings. However, according to Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2022 released on Thursday, none found a place in the top 200 global league table.

While IISc was placed in the 301-350 cohort, same as last year, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar retained its position in the 351-400 group. Mysuru-based private university JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research made its debut in the global rankings and was placed in the 351-400 group, followed by IIT Indore (401-500). Alagappa University and Thapar University were in the 501-600 cohort.

THE allots individual ranking numbers to institutes in the top 200 list, and lists the rest in cohorts.

Ten Indian varsities, including Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi Technology University (DTU), Jamia Millia Islamia and Panjab University were listed in the 601-800 band. Delhi University, however, slipped from last year’s ranking of 601-800 to the 801-1,000 band.

The top seven Indian Institutes of Technology, including the ones at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kanpur, did not participate in THE rankings for the second consecutive year as they are not convinced with the ranking methodology.

THE said Indian universities are gradually improving their research, citation and global research collaboration scores, alongside teaching and publications scores.

“We are seeing in the data that over the past five years, India’s universities have improved across most metrics used to compile the THE World University Rankings compared to the global average, especially in research reputation, teaching reputation, citations, ratio of publications to staff and international co-authorship,” THE said in an email response.

India is home to 35 universities in the global top 1,000 list, which is led by Oxford University. To be sure, lack of international students and faculties continues to be net-negative for the Indian universities.

According to THE, UK’s University of Oxford, which led the way in the global search for a covid-19 vaccine, retained the top spot for an impressive sixth consecutive year.

It was followed by California Institute of Technology and Harvard University (ranked 2) and Stanford University (rank 4). UK’s Cambridge University complete the top five table.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was awarded the fifth rank alongside Cambridge.

From Asia, China’s Peking University and Tsinghua University were the best ranked in the continent with a global joint ranking of 16.