IIT-Bombay Ranks First in QS Ranking of Indian Institutions

Seven IITs rank among the top ten highest universities in the country.

Representational Image. 

(Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia)

The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, has secured the top spot in the first-ever standalone ranking of Indian higher education institutions. Released by QS (Quacquarelli Symonds), a UK based company specialising in education, the rankings reflect the top 75 Indian universities. Of these, at least seven IIT's are ranked in top ten.

The Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, stands second. The IITs in Madras, Delhi, Kharagpur and Kanpur follow as third, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

University of Delhi is ranked eighth on the list, right after the University of Hyderabad.

According to QS, the top eleven higher education institutions have a perfect score for the ‘Staff with PhD Indicator’, which measures success in recruitment of highly qualified academic staff.

In the research productivity indicator, nine institutions achieved a score between 98.4 and 100, PTI reported.

IIT Bombay, Madras, Delhi, Kharagpur, Kanpur and the University of Delhi enjoyed outstanding regard among the nearly 43,000 international employers surveyed, while IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi and the IIS Bangalore were the most voted by 83,000+ international academics polled.

Difference in Criteria

Interestingly, while IIT Madras has ranked higher than its Delhi counterpart in the India University Rankings, it is lower on the ranking table in the World University rankings. This owes to differing methodologies used to compile the rankings.

Explaining this variance, the Communications Director at QS, Simona Bizzozero, told The Indian Express,

“Performance criteria used for the Indian University Rankings are the same as we use for the QS BRICS Ranking. In the global tables, academic reputation carries 40 percent weightage, in the Indian edition it carries 30 percent. The World University Rankings focus on research impact (citations per faculty) and the domestic league looks at research productivity (number of papers per faculty).”

Simona Bizzozero as quoted by <i>The Indian Express</i>

According to Bizzozero, while Jawaharlal Nehru University fares well in all parameters, but caters primarily to research students, and is hence missing from the ranking table. Universities that teach students at the graduate, postgraduate and research level across different disciplines are the only ones considered.

What are the Indicators?

Six performance indicators are used to assess the universities, and each carry a different weight, QS says.

The indicators are – academic reputation (30 percent), employer reputation (20 percent), faculty-student ratio (20 percent), research citations per faculty member (20 percent), proportion of international students (2.5 percent) and proportion of international faculty (2.5 percent).

The India University Rankings is the second country-specific rankings conducted by QS. The first was released for China on 10 October.

(With inputs from PTI)