Indian universities fail excellence test

The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2024, which provide an international benchmark for the performance and popularity of universities the world over, has again disappointed the country’s education sector. The report, released last week, does not give a top ranking to any Indian university. Some universities have inched higher from last year’s positions but most have slipped down. IIT-Bombay, ranked 149th, has just made it to the top-150 list. The University of Delhi (ranked 407th) and Anna University (427th) have entered the top 500 group. However, most other institutions of higher education, as also institutes which command prestige in the country. have slipped in the rankings. They include IITs and IISc-Bangalore. In all, 45 Indian universities — up from 41 — find a place in the latest rankings that feature 1,500 institutions.

There is a view that the shift in positions may be because of a change in the methodology applied in this QS edition, which introduced Sustainability, Employment Outcomes and International Research Network in the assessment criteria. But that is a poor argument because no Indian university had any honourable rank last year or in any previous year. The value of the rankings has also been questioned, but all these sound like losers’ excuses. Rankings are a matter of perception. Even if the ranking does not reflect the exact order of excellence of the institutions, broadly speaking, all institutions in the top rungs deserve to be there. The fact that India, which has the most number of universities in the world (over 1,000) and most number of students in them (about 40 million), does not have a single university in the top rungs does not bring any credit to the education system. It should be noted that China has the third largest share of ranked universities (71), behind the UK (90) and USA (201). Till last year, no Chinese universities featured in the QS’ top 15 global rankings.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said last week that Indian universities have seen a significant improvement in their international standing due to the policies and decisions taken by the government in the education sector. He cited as proof the presence of 45 Indian universities in the latest QR rankings, as against 12 in 2014. Even if the claim is accepted, the improvement falls far short of what is needed. The country needs to increase its education budget at all levels and focus on excellence in every respect. The decision to set up the National Research Foundation (NRF) is good, but standards have to improve from the school level onwards to enable students and scholars to do good research.