India Moves Up on Times Higher Education Rankings

56 institutions make it to the list, up from 49 earlier; newcomer IIT Ropar shares the top Indian spot with IISc

India has jumped significantly in The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020, with 56 institutions making it to the list, up from 49 previously. India remains the fifth most-represented nation in the world. However, for the first time since 2012, not a single Indian university made it to the top 300 list.

The Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, still ranks the highest but now shares this position, after dropping into the 301-350 bracket (from 251-300), due to a significant fall in its citation impact score, negating improvements in research and teaching environment and industry income. Newcomer IIT Ropar shares the joint top spot with IISc, Bengaluru, pushing IIT Indore, which remains in the 351-400 band, into the third spot.

The older IITs — Bombay, Delhi and Kharagpur — are in the 401-500 bracket; IIT Roorkee is in the 501-600 and IIT Guwahati, IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras in the 601-800 category. So why do the much younger IITs at Ropar and Indore — one was set up in 2008 and the other in 2009 — outperform their older, much more established counterparts on the rankings front?

“IIT Ropar and IIT Indore performed very well in citation score, the best in India, in fact. As this measure is heavily weighted, performing well here helps rankings performance greatly,” a Times Higher Education spokesperson told ET in reply to an emailed query. IIT Ropar and IIT Indore are also smaller institutions, which mean that they have a better student/staff ratio which also helps improve their rankings tally.

“Despite this, both IIT Indore and IIT Ropar are behind other Indian institutions in industry income, teaching reputation and research reputation,” said the spokesperson.

Overall, seven Indian universities fall into a lower band this year, while the bulk of the country’s institutions remain stable. But there are a few institutions that have moved up in the rankings table, including IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur and Jamia Millia Islamia. The best Indian institutions are generally characterised by relatively strong scores for teaching environment and industry income, but perform poorly when it comes to international outlook compared with both regional and international counterparts.

Now in its 16th year, the Times ranking includes over 1,300 universities from 92 countries. University of Oxford took the first place in the overall rankings, followed by California Institute of Technology, University of Cambridge, Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Source | Economic Times | 12^th September 2019

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