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Latest News |
| 17th
Sep 2010 / Times of India / Bangalore Edition |
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Indian universities find no place in world rankings
New Delhi: India is nowhere in the recently released world
university rankings. The three rankings Times Higher Education
World University Rankings, Academic Ranking of World Universities
compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and the QS World
University Rankings are just out, but none of the Indian
universities have made it to the top 100.
While overall the US dominates all the three rankings, the
QS rankings have China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Israel, Taiwan
and even Thailand ahead of India with IIT-Bombay in the
187th position. In the other two rankings, (Times Higher
Education World University Rankings and Academic Ranking
of World Universities ) India finds no place in the top
200, but Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Turkey
bag decent places in between the two rankings.
B K Mathur, dean, planning and coordination, IIT Kharagpur, however, dismisses
the world university rankings as a subject for coffee
table discussions. But at a time when India is being hyped
as a future knowledge economy and the country is emerging
as the new academic destination globally, isnt international
benchmarking in education important for India Mathur stresses, It
is not ranking but word of mouth that conveys our academic
excellence to students. We have 50, 000 alumni across the
world, they are our ambassadors.
However, agreeing that the world is watching us, Narendra
Jadhav, member, Planning Commission, says, Though the international
ranking methodology is erroneous, Indian universities need
to be open to international benchmarking. What they lack
is a proper management of information system. Also, there
needs to be greater awareness among universities to at
least give out accurate information so that it reflects
their true academic status. S K Barua, director, IIMAhmedabad, stresses
that international benchmarking is becoming important
and with the world becoming smaller and global student
mobility increasing, we need to realise that if we go up
the ranking as a nation, education is going to give us
the inflow of foreign exchange. Besides, I believe that
we have the potential to excel and if we are keen India
can become the Mecca of higher education.
Despite Indias skepticism, rankings are becoming an important
determinant for students. As Jonathan Adams, director of
research evaluation, Thomson Reuters (Times Higher Education
has tied up with Thomson Reuters this year), points out, Well
developed and information-rich rankings can be a helpful
guide to students about the relative standing of universities
worldwide.
On a concluding note, Phil Baty, editor of Times Higher
Educations World University Rankings, points out that an
important principle of the new Times Higher Education
World University Rankings is that all universities that
are listed actively cooperate with the system and sign
off their data.
He adds, We are delighted that the vast majority of universities
around the world have embraced this exercise and have
actively participated. It is unfortunate that we didnt
manage to collect as much information from India in this
first year as we would have liked, which is a real shame
for India as the world needs to get a clear sense of its
higher education provision, as expectations are so high
and Indias potential is so great.
FAMOUS FIVE
Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2010-2011
Harvard University, US
California Institute of Technology, US
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US
Stanford University, US
Princeton University, US
QS WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS 2010
University of Cambridge, UK
Harvard University, US
Yale University, US
UCL (University College London), UK
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US
ACADEMIC RANKING OF WORLD UNIVERSITIES 2010
Harvard University, US
University of California, Berkeley
Stanford University, US
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US
University of Cambridge, UK
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