JOIN USThe Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2021, which were released last week, do not offer any cheer to India as the country's institutions of higher learning are grossly under-represented in the rankings. While no Indian institute has secured a position among the world’s top 100 universities, IIT Bombay, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore and IIT Delhi have continued to find themselves in the top 200 list. But they have slipped from the positions they had last year. IIT Bombay has dropped from 152 to 172 and the others too have moved to lower ranks. There are only 21 Indian institutes among the top 1,000 universities of the world this year, as against 24 last year. India has about 1,000 universities and the second largest number of students going to colleges and universities. Yet, the QS and other rankings are annual reminders of the fact that there is not a single world-class institute of higher learning in the country.
There are questions about the methodology of ranking adopted by the QS and other ranking systems and about the uneven or wrong weightage given to some factors which go into the ranking. The QS rankings measure institutes on factors like reputation, faculty-student ratio, citations, international faculty ratio etc. A high weightage is given to academic peer review which may even be considered subjective. While it is true that Indian universities have lagged in this respect, it cannot be argued that their low ranking is only because of this factor. Some institutes like the IITs have done well in areas like research and this has been acknowledged by the QS report. But there is the need to improve performance on all the parameters for the country’s institutions to be recognised as centres of all-round excellence.
A country with India’s population, student strength, economic status and aspirations should not be languishing at the bottom of educational rankings. The top positions are held by established and reputed universities in the developed world but institutes in countries like China and Singapore have also secured high positions. They have gained these positions in recent years through hard work. Unless India strives and improves the standards in its institutions, it will not be able to do justice to its young generations and fulfil their aspirations. The whole approach to education has to change and it has to be improved from the school level if institutes of higher learning have to make the grade at the international level.