Indian varsities missing in top 200 global list

<p>The world’s second-fastest growing economy does not have an educational institute in the top 200 global list this year. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay — the only Indian varsity that found itself in the Top 200 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings in 2010 at the number 187 spot — dropped 38 places to 225. Similarly, IIT Delhi fell to number 218 from 202 in 2010 and IIT Madras dropped to 281 from last year’s 262.

The rankings by QS, a leading networking organisation in higher education, are based on employer reputation, academic reputation and research quality.

The remaining Indian universities featuring in the rankings, including IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Roorkee, IIT Guwahati, University of Delhi, University of Calcutta, University of Pune and University of Mumbai, did not find a place in the Top 300 World University Rankings.

However, some Indian varsities fared well in the QS Asian University Rankings 2011. While the likes of IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi, IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur and IIT Roorkee climbed rankings, IIT Bombay dropped two places in the annual rankings. At 36th place, IIT Kanpur, which was ranked 37 last year, became the top Indian university. Two more Indian universities (IIT Madras and IIT Kharagpur) also made it to the top 50 Asian Universities list, compared to last year. IIT Bombay fell two places to 38, while IIT Delhi took the 37th place, moving up from 39.

However, other Indian universities like University of Calcutta, University of Delhi, University of Mumbai and University of Pune slipped in their rankings, while University of Hyderabad did not make it to the list.

Globally, while Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and University of Oxford bettered their last year’s rankings from five and six to three and five, respectively, Yale University dropped one place from third to fourth rank.

In the Asia list, Japan was the best-represented nation, with five of the top 10 and 57 of the top 200 universities, ahead of China (40) and South Korea (35), Taiwan (16), India (11), Thailand (9), Indonesia (8), Malaysia (7) and Hong Kong (7). Despite its troubled economy, Japan’s universities continued to perform better, with Tokyo and Kyoto each moving up one place to fourth and seventh, respectively. In Singapore, National University of Singapore retained its place in the top three.

Meanwhile, under the technical subject rankings by QS, IIT Delhi bagged the 30th place in the civil and structural engineering category. It also bagged the 40th, 41st and 43rd places in subjects like mechanical, aeronautical and manufacturing engineering; electrical and electronic engineering; and computer science subjects – the highest among Indian institutes.

The other top Indian technical institutes featuring in the QS World University Rankings include IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Guwahati, IIT Roorkee, and Indian Institute of Science.