IISc and its will to excel

It is good news that the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, has been adjudged the world’s best research institute on the basis of citations by the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World Rankings 2022. QS rankings which grade the world’s universities are looked forward to every year as reliable indicators of academic standing. The rankings are decided on the basis of academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, international faculty ratio, international student ratio and citations per faculty. While the IISc stood first on citations, it does not figure in the top 100 universities in overall ranking. It scored a perfect 100 on citations per faculty, which is the value arrived at by dividing the total number of citations received by a university’s research papers over a five-year period by the number of faculty in that institution. It is an indicator of how the research work in the institute is referenced by students and scholars.

There may be doubts about the relative value of citations among other metrics, but there is no doubt that coming first in the world on its basis is a marker of merit and excellence. The country can be proud of that achievement and should take it as a sign of what its scientific and research institutions can achieve. When all the metrics are considered, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and IIT Delhi are ranked first and second in India and the IISc comes third. The IISc and the IITs are the best institutions in the country in the field of teaching and research in science and engineering, but have not figured in high or even middle positions in world rankings. Only 22 Indian universities figure in the top 1,000.

That is why the IISc’s position in the QS rankings on citations is significant and should bring cheer and hope. It may have surprised many that an institution which was not in the reckoning has suddenly taken the number one position, ahead of the world’s best universities, though it is only with respect to one parameter. It shows that it is possible to achieve excellence in other areas also if there is the will to excel and sustained efforts are made for that. QS noted that Indian universities have improved their performance on academic reputation and research impact, but they continue to rank poorly in the teaching capacity. Changes have to be made in organisation, practices, policies and attitudes and in the environment in which the universities function, and there should be an atmosphere congenial to scientific enquiry and research in the country. The country will hope that the recognition won by its premiere scientific institution is not a blip, and will lead to bigger achievements.