Indian universities lack international faculties.
The 2016-17 Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings has listed the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (IISc), and six other top Indian universities, including Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the list of top 250 universities across the world.
The IISc achieved this remarkable feat by scoring 99.9 in ‘citations per faculty’ – a ranking factor of QS – making the Bangalore-based prestigious institution the 11th best research institute in the world.
However, the ranking of IISc, which was 150 in the QS ranking of 2015, fell to 152 in 2016-17. A similar fall in ranking was also visible in the case of IITs.
IIT Delhi that secured 179th rank last year was pushed down to 185 during 2016-17, IIT Bombay that got listed as the 202nd on the list last year slipped to 219, IIT Kanpur also received a flat blow after it lost its 271th position settling down in 302.
The case of IIT Kharagpur is no different as it is currently placed at 313 opposed to 286. Same with IIT Roorkee at 399 against 391 and IIT Guwahati in the 481-490 band against the 451-460 band last year.
That said, IIT Madras has moved forward from their last year’s ranking as they are now placed as one of the top 250 educational universities in the world moving up five points. However, their researchers failed to make the impact as they fell to 101 spot from their earlier position of 93 Four Indian institutes are ranked in the top 100 for research impact.
Ben Sowter, head of research at the QS Intelligence Unit, said “Institutions in countries that provide high levels of targeted funding, whether from endowments or from the public purse, are rising… The performance of Indian institutions in our recent regional rankings suggests that India is gaining some ground on its regional competitors.”
“Though India is making substantial and commendable progress towards ensuring that more of its tertiary-age population has access to tertiary education, the global edition indicates that substantial challenges remain,” he added
According to Sowter, the decrease in the number of Ph.D. researchers and the fall in the number of international faculties played against the Indian universities, thus affecting its ranking. He highlighted that no Indian University managed to rank above 700 when it comes to the number of international faculties.