Times Higher Education ranking: No Indian institute among top 200

With no signs of bettering its record on global academic rankings, not one Indian institute has made it to the top 200 of the Times Higher Education's World University Rankings 2014-15 released on Wednesday in London.

While the prestigious academic ranking is topped for the fourth consecutive year by the California Institute of Technology, Harvard and Oxford Universities have bagged the second and third places.

As far as India is concerned - while we have no institute at all among top 200, four Indian institutes figure in the 276-400 range. There are at least 11 countries with one top-200 representative. India is among the many countries like Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Greece, Iceland, India, Iran, Macau, Poland, Portugal and Thailand, that have no top-200 institutions, but are represented in the 200-400 list.

Surprise candidate - Chandigarh's Panjab University continues its dream run for a second year straight, scoring ahead of IITs to stand in the 276-300 bracket. However, this time it is sharing the glory with the Indian Institute of Science (IISC) that has marked a debut on the Times Higher Education rankings.

Just like last year, the IITs have ranked below the Panjab University- with IIT Bombay and IIT Roorkee in the 351-400 bracket.

Phil Baty, the editor of Times Higher Education World University Rankings told India Today over email that why IITs scored lower, had to do with their greater focus on teaching rather than research.

"IITs are indeed renowned institutions, and they are increasingly showing up in THE's rankings - but perhaps the biggest challenge is that we give most weight to excellence in research, whereas the ITTs are best known for outstanding teaching... Panjab has an excellent score for its research impact - it may not have a huge impact, but it has been involved in research which has truly pushed the boundaries of knowledge and has been widely disseminated across the global scholarly community. That is why it is doing well in the THE World University Rankings", Baty explained.

Baty also added that he had spoken to some of the deans and directors of premier institutions in India .

"... they opine that Indian Institute of Management and Technologies are little pockets of excellence in their chosen fields and perhaps that is why such World university rankings might not truly reflect actual state of affairs. For example, Panjab University in India is not as revered as some of the other IIMs and IITs... But it should be a cause for serious concern that a country of India's size, growing economic strength and great intellectual history, does not yet have a top-200 entrant, and does not seem to be making enough progress up the rankings. The world rankings are extremely competitive, as many countries put serious resources into improving the global profile and performance of their universities as part of their economic growth plans, and India needs to ensure it does not fall too far behind."Baty added.

Phil Baty also welcomed the inclusion of IISC on the rankings - saying that while it is a world renowned institution that always showed up in their reputation survey as the strongest university in India, it has now got the visibility and recognition it deserves as it started to accept undergraduates which is a requirement of rigorous rankings methodology.

PU Vice Chancellor, Prof Arun Kumar Grover, meanwhile, said that it was a matter of satisfaction has been recognised at the global level for the second year in a row.

"PU & Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have been ranked at the same place, which is an honour to PU is because IISc is a world acknowledged Research Institute of the country...I would have been happier, if other institutes had taken over PU in the ranking as that would have given us confidence to move forward", Grover said.

He added that the recent ranking has proved that ranking cannot be manipulated as PU has been consistently ranked among top Universities by different agencies.

PU's surprise debut on the Times Higher Education ranking ahead of the IITs last year had many questioning the ranking methodology. Some of the IITs even hinted at possible commercial angles to rankings - which were strongly denied by those who publish the rankings.

While Indian institutes have largely ignored the rankings with most not even bothering to participate, the government has begun to take the issue seriously. If President Pranab Mukherjee has brought up the issue of the absence of Indian institutes on global academic rankings in several speeches now, the Smriti Irani led Union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry has just finished discussions on a National Ranking Framework to get all our varsities and institutes to find a global footprint. IITs have also finally come around to working on a ranking framework that will look at ranking parameters with an Indian perspective.

Highlights

California Institute of Technology holds on to the world number one spot for the fourth consecutive year, ahead of Harvard University in second and the University of Oxford in third

Still no top-200 place for India, but it does have a new joint number-one university

Leading Asian institutions continue to rise. Asia now has 24 universities in the world top 200, up from 20 last year. Two Asian universities now make the world top 25 and six make the top 50

Strong year for Australia, but bad news for New Zealand

UK loses three universities from the prestigious top 200 list, while power concentrates in the South East

Worrying evidence of decline in North America, with significant losses for both the US and Canada

Japan retains its position as Asia's number one nation. But its universities lose ground against rising Asian nations, including China, Hong Kong and South Korea

Strong performance from the Middle East and North Africa, with Turkey making major rankings gains and representation for Morocco, Iran and Israel

The top 200 now features 28 countries, up from 26 countries last year, with Italy and Russia appearing as new entrants