10 Indian varsities in Times Asia rankings

Dramatic improvement compared to three last year

Ten Indian institutions have made it to this year’s Asia University Rankings by Times Higher Education, while Japan topped the list with 20 institutes on the top-100 list. Last year only three institutions from India had figured on the list. IIT-Bombay   is not on this year’s list (see chart). Last year it was ranked 33.

Panjab University, 32nd on list this year, was the topmost from India. This institution was also the topmost institution of higher education in the country, according to theTimes Higher Education World University Rankings released in October 2013. The rankings revealed that China is posing a stiff challenge to Japan, which used to enjoy supremacy in the region. Although the latter retained its premier position, with the University of Tokyo scoring the No. 1 position and other 19 of its universities in the top 100, it lost two candidates from the list. On the other hand, China has improved its position with 18 of its universities figuring on list against 15 in 2013.

It showed that India made maximum progress in this year’s rankings. India now has 10 universities on the list. Panjab University (32nd rank) is followed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kharagpur (45th), IIT-Kanpur (55th) and six more IITs. Jadavpur University (76th), Aligarh Muslim University (80th) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (90th) have also found place on the list.

In third place is South Korea with 14 institutions, followed by Taiwan with 13 (down from 17 last year). While Japan is the top-most country, the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (81st  in 2013) and Yokohama National University (joint 96th) have exited the table this year and three more institutions are close to the precipice: Okayama University (down nine places to 94th), Kanazawa University (96th) and Chiba University (which has fallen a massive 23 places to 98th). 

India’s Secretary for Higher Education Ashok Thakur writes the question of whether the country should go “full hog” for the global university rankings “has mercifully been laid to rest by none other than the president of India, Pranab Mukherjee, who has made it clear that as a matter of policy, all institutions in the country have to participate wholeheartedly in the rankings process”.

Phil Baty, editor of Times Higher Education Rankings, said these prestigious rankings were wonderful news for India. “A drive to introduce systematic quality assurance and accreditation for the country’s huge range of higher education institutions, plus plans to boost university research, should push it even further. And the election of a majority government raises the prospect of further decisive action in the higher education sphere, cutting through the red tape that has untrammeled previous initiatives,” he said.

The Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2014 is one of the world’s largest academic reputation surveys with 10,000 academics in 2013 and almost 60,000 since 2010. It has thirteen indicators across five areas taken into account, and examines all the core missions of the modern global university — research, teaching, knowledge transfer and international activity.

Source | Business Standard | 19 June 2014

Courses from 3 IITs, IISc are in global top 50

IIT-B Best All-Rounder With 4 On List

Hemali Chhapia TNN 

Mumbai: Four Indian universities, including the IITs at Delhi and Mumbai, are among the global top 50 in at least one of the 30 disciplines covered under the QS World University Rankings by Subject. 
    IIT-Delhi achieved the country’s highest position, ranking 42nd in electrical engineering. IIT-Bombay was 49th in electrical engineering and 50th in civil engineering, IIT-Madras 49th in civil engineering and the Indian Institute of Science 46th in materials science. 
    No course from Indian universities figure in areas such as arts, humanities and social sciences. IIT-Bombay is the only one in the top 200 in any of the five arts and humanities disciplines, ranking in the 151-200 grouping for linguistics (see box). 
    The five life sciences disciplines feature only two Indian institutions, while India draws a blank in six of the eight social sciences disciplines. The exceptions are statistics, in which five Indian entities — IIT-D, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Kanpur, Indian Statistical Institute and IIT-B — feature, and politics, in which Jawaharlal Nehru University appears in the 101-150 grouping. 
    All round, IIT-B emerges as the top institution with four of its courses making it to the rankings. 
    “The IITs continue to perform well in their specialist areas and the inclusion of three of them in the global top 50 in the engineering disciplines shows they are starting to achieve genuine international renown,” said QS head of research Ben Sowter. 
    On the other hand, the lack of world-renowned Indian programmes in arts, humanities and social sciences continues to be a concern, Sowter said. “The absence of Indian universities from the top 200 in subjects such as medicine, law, accounting and finance underlines the difficulty India faces in reversing the tide of talented students leaving the country to study abroad,” he added. 
    “The latest QS rankings highlight the excellence of the specialist Indian institutions in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) area and identifies the need to improve the global competitiveness of our universities, in particular the large and comprehensive institutions,” said Mohandas Pai, chairman, ICAA — Indian Centre for Assessment & Accreditation.

Source::: The Times of India, 26-02-2014, p.5,    http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2014/02/26&PageLabel=5&EntityId=Ar00502&ViewMode=HTML

Panjab Univ beats IITs in global rankings

Manash Pratim Gohain | TNN 

New Delhi:Although no Indian institution of higher learning has made it to the top 200 in the Times Higher Education’s (THE) World University Rankings list 2013-14, one new entrant — Panjab University — is close to that elite group. Panjab University is the highest ranked Indian institution, featuring in the group of universities ranked between 226 and 250. 
    According to THE, this is India’s best performance so far with five institutes making it to the top 400. The other Indian institutes featuring in the list are four Indian Institutes of Technology from Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Roorkee, all clubbed in the group of institutions ranked between 351 and 400. 
    The California Institute of Technology has retained its place at the top of the rankings for the third consecutive year, while Harvard University has regained the second place (up from fourth in 2012-13), a position shared with the UK’s University of Oxford. Stanford University has slipped from joint second to fourth. 
    According to THE, the improved engagement by India in the world-renowned rankings has seen it add three new entrants to the list. The increased representation for India follows a two-day National Policy Dialogue in May on international rankings, when THE representatives were invited to meet senior university leaders by the HRD ministry and Planning Commission. 
    At the meeting in New Delhi, Ashok Thakur, secretary of the department of higher education, said that Indian institutions must no longer hide behind the “excuse” that the global rankings metrics and indicators are not well suited for India’s institutions. “We must play the same game as the rest of the world is playing,” he said. 
    Of the five Indian institutions in the top 400, three — Punjab University, IIT-Delhi and IIT-Kanpur — are new entrants. They join IIT-Kharagpur, which has slipped from the 226-250 group to the 351-400 group and IIT-Roorkee, which remains in the 351-400 group. Phil Baty, editor of the THE World University Rankings, said: “These results should be encouraging for India. While no Indian institution makes the top 200, one player is close in the 226-250 group. Moreover, India now has five representatives in the top 400.” 
    While the US remained the dominant force in the rankings with 77 institutions in the top 200, UK is second with 31. At five, Japan has the highest number of universities in the list among Asian countries.

Source:::: The Times of India, 03-10-2013, p.09,  http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW