The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) has released its first India-specific rankings recently, in which seven of the top ten are the Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs). The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) was India’s best institution in the QS World University Rankings which was released earlier this year. Interestingly, in India rankings, IIT Bombay has bagged the number one position, while IISc Bengaluru and IIT Madras managed to rank second and third respectively. IITs at Delhi, Kharagpur and Kanpur, stand fourth, fifth and sixth individually, in the rankings. On the other hand, among the top 10, the University of Hyderabad stands seventh, the University of Delhi holds eight in the rankings. IIT Bombay Beats IIT Delhi in QS World University Rankings 2019: Check List of Top 500 Universities Across the Globe. 

Most of the institutions which are positioned at the top by India’s official rankings like the National Institute of Ranking Framework (NIRF) do very well in the QS rankings too. Jawaharlal Nehru University ranked sixth in NIRF but could not make in the top ten of QS India Rankings. When asked for the reason behind its barring, an official of QS told The Hindu, “JNU, outside of its language school, is postgraduate only. Essentially then, at an undergraduate level, it’s single-faculty. In reality it’s a primarily doctoral research institution. According to our inclusion criteria this is a specialist institution and in fact it features in our World University Rankings by Subject.”

The India University Rankings look at the university system, but with an International lens. The World University Rankings focus on research impact, while the domestic league looks at research productivity. Meanwhile, the centre is trying to facilitate foreign faculty and student’s intake in the Indian institutes to improve our global rankings. The institutions have been scored on academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-student ration, the proportion of staff with PhD and various other dimensions including the size of the international faculty.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 16, 2018 09:30 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).