3 Indian institutes in world's top 200 universities but their rating dips

IIT Bombay retains its status as India's premier university by taking 172nd spot in Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings.

Three premier institutes led by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, followed closely by Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, and IIT Delhi have featured in the top 200 QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World University Rankings.

However, all three—along with 11 others—have dropped in their rankings over the past 12 months.

IIT Bombay has retained its status as India’s premier university at 172nd global rank, though it fell 20 places from 152 last year.

IISc Bangalore and IIT Delhi were the second- and third-ranked Indian institutes at 185th and 193rd places, respectively. IISc fell from 184th rank and IIT Delhi from 182nd.

The QS World University Rankings, produced by global higher education consultancy QS Quacquarelli Symonds, rate the world’s top 1,000 universities.

In total, 21 Indian higher education institutions have found their place among the world’s top 1,000. Of these 21, 14 have fallen in rank over the past 12 months, while four have improved their position.

According to QS, Indian higher education institutions perform strongly in research quality, even though they fail to increase their academic standing, teaching capacity, and levels of internationalisation at the same rate as their global competitors.

This was evident from the fact that IISc Bangalore emerged the second-best globally, in terms research citations per faculty with a world rank No. 2, followed by IIT Roorkee winning the 20th position globally for the parameter.

The QS World University Rankings are an aggregate of weighting given for various parameters, including academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, research citations per faculty, international faculty, and international students.

For instance, IIT Bombay earned 93rd place in terms of employer reputation — the best among Indian institutes globally. Incidentally, almost all featured Indian institutes were ranked below 601 for international faculty and international students, except OP Jindal Global University, which was ranked at 473rd position in the former parameter.

According to Ben Sowter, director of research at QS, the QS World University Rankings are both a relative indicator and a moving target. This means that a university’s performance is judged relative to its competitors, and that improvements in performance can see an institution drop if other competitors are improving at a faster rate.

 

“Though India’s universities have dropped as a group this year, this is frequently because of other universities across the world making increasingly intense efforts to enhance their educational offerings. To regain lost ground, Indian higher education must find ways of increasing teaching capacity, and of attracting more talented students and faculty across the world to study in India. There is plenty of potential, and there are pockets of excellence, within the Indian system,” Sowter said on the rankings.

Meanwhile, apart from the top three ranked Indian institutes, the others include IIT Madras at 275th rank, IIT Kharagpur (314), IIT Kanpur (350), IIT Roorkee (383), IIT Guwahati (470), University of Delhi in the 501-510 rank band, and IIT Hyderabad in the 601-650 rank band, forming the top 10 Indian institutes in the rankings.