Harvard has been ranked as the top university in the world for the sixth consecutive year, while none of the Indian institutes of higher education figure in the latest edition of The Times Higher Education, world reputation ranking report. The United States dominates the rankings of 200 world class universities.
China has performed exceedingly well with six of its universities figuring in the list of 200, two in the first 50s as per the World University Rankings 2010-2011 based on the largest global survey of academic opinion where more than 13,000 experienced academics from 131 countries give their expert insight.
Between 2004 and 2009, the Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management and the Jawaharlal Nehru University figured in the global list of 200 institutes but have slipped out in the new scoring system.
However, the Indian Institutes of Technology Roorkee, Kharagpur, Delhi, Kanpur and Bombay; Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Indian Institute of Science, University of Delhi and Anna University do figure in the top 100 Asian Universities.
Cambridge has been named as the most highly regarded universities in the world, while Oxford among the United Kingdom's came third in a table that ranked universities exclusively on the basis of “academics” worldwide.
Seven of the United States universities figured in the top 10, followed by the United Kingdom making Japan the only country whose university found a place in the rankings as Tokyo University was placed eighth.
U.S., U.K. at the top
Overall, the U.S. had 45 universities in the top 100, while the U.K. had 12 and Japan had five. These three nations were the best represented in the rankings. Canada, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands had four universities each in the top 100.
According to Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2010-2011, Harvard University ranking at the top had an overall score of 96.1, California Institute of Technology that occupied the second slot had 96 points followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Stanford University was adjudged the fourth best institution and Princeton University, the fifth.
The Chinese institutes of higher educations that figured in the list are Beijing University (37th rank), University of Science and Technology of China (49), Tsinghua University (58), Nanjing University (120), Sun Yat-sen University (172) and Zhejiang University (197).
Although this is the seventh year that the global rankings have been announced, but the exercise undertaken for 2010-2011 adopted a methodology which included 13 criteria for judging. This was done to avoid the criticism that the ranking was primarily based on perception.
The ranking was done based on the points scored for teaching, research, citation, innovation and international mix of students and teachers.
Keywords: higher education, IIT, IIM, Harvard, MIT
There is nothing surprising to find no Indian University in top 200. The reasons are: 1. Institutions like IITs have less than 10% of professors who do real teaching, they reason out that their students are brilliant and read themselves. 2. 90% IIT professors focus their attention only to funded Industry oriented research to fill their pocket, along with all benifits.They have no control, they can do whatever they like. Very often they go abroad and work for money. 3. 80 %IIT BTech students go abroad and never think of serving the country atleast their own IIT. 4.Govt Poor Primary education system. Politicians don't put any effort to see that the plans are properly implemented. 5.Poor attitude of Parents, they want their sons and daughters to earn degree and get high salary. 6. With 50 years of IITs, with thousands of crores of money spent on them what is the benefit to the country. Have IITians done anything significant for the country. 7. Why Public sectors like DRDO, ISRO can't use IIT brains for their projects. How much of IIT ideas have gone inside Indian Defence products. Crores of Defence money is given to IIT professors to do project - Result ??? 8. Are the IIT professors questioned by/accountable to the Fund providers? What can be expect from IITs , who swallow majority of the exchequers money, without any output?
Exactly what the problem is.... The education system in India gives more importance to vanity than virtue. Most of the universities above have definitely given more importance to the virtue of knowledge.
The Indian Institutes lack research environment. There isn't enough incentive for the professors to perform. Most of the universities are facing shortage of faculty. Issues like reservation only make the matters worse. Also, there is a serious concern about the selection criteria. For instance in IITs, students prefer to opt for those departments that promise better placements. So the research oriented subjects like Biotechnology doesn't go with the students. It clearly suggests the inefficiency of our primary education system. Our students usually lack interest in any particular field. This is because even our best schools can't provide practical exposure needed for the research. Schools are don't think beyond board exams. Hence there is a need for serious policy changes in the education sector.
Indian Institute of Science ranks within top 100 (91-100 segment)in the report.
yes it is somehow disappointing that no institute or university from india is in top 200.this ranking is performed mostly based on research and some other parameters as infrastructure,quality of ed. When it comes to quality of education, I will say Indian universities deserve this ranking as such a third class education quality they provide. I suggest there must be separate research centers. These research centers should comprised of some 3 or 4 subjects not more than this. This will help in improving research quality. I think that IIT professors are given unnecessary load by involving them in research. Either they should do industrial projects or do research. They are now mostly involved in industrial projects, how they will perform research? IITs and other universities have not enough faculty to teach. If they have, they are not qualified.They have only degrees. If faculty are not qualified obviously quality will never improve. Anyway Indians don't want to invest their time in research.they are moving towards industry.
Sixty three years past since India got Independence. Recently we witnessed 62nd Republic day parade. Quality of Education in India have never been in Growth Trajectory. The reasons are quite distinct and prominent now. Unless the political intervention into the Indian education system is stopped completely, quality of education can not improve. In India, Political Leaders successfully derive huge benefit out of lower caste people's sentiment. In India it is pretty easy for a political leader like ND Tiwary to get Doctorate degree. Whereas in Germany, defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg had to apologize for coping thesis to obtain doctorate degree. In India, Government allure SC ST OBC students to avail mid day meal for the sake of increasing their vote banks and obstinately refuses to provide quality teaching staffs for imparting quality education in primary as well as secondary standards. So Government do not fix a acceptable qualifying standard for the SC/ ST/ OBC candidates in the competitive examinations. Government do not want the SC/ ST/ OBC candidates to score more marks than a General Candidate in the scholarship examination like NTSE and avail the scholarship. Instead it lowers the bar for SC/ ST/ OBC candidates to avail the scholarship. SC/ ST/ OBC reservations are so liberally implemented that candidates from poor socio economic background belonging to these categories and General categories who do not get quality teaching staffs in their school are becoming the most suffered lot. The gap between rich SC/ ST/ OBC candidates and Poor SC/ ST/ OBC candidates is widening. Recently in the media it was reported that a survey was conducted to assess the quality of teaching staff in primary standards of schools in some villages of Uttar Pradesh. The most shocking revelations was that 90 percent of the teachers belonging to SC/ ST/ OBC communities and teaching the SC/ ST/OBC candidates failed to score the minimum qualifying pass marks. In the absence of quality teaching staff how can we produce quality education in our country. Most of the Government educational institutions are filled with inefficient and unprofessional teachers. Once Bal Thackray also commented that in some schools students are better than the teachers. The status of secondary education system is more pathetic.Now Government is trying to degrade the quality of IITs by recruiting low quality professors and teaching staff in the recently formed IITs. After three to four years these low quality teaching staffs will be taking over the control from the present dignified professionals and then only the name of IITs and IIMs will be there for us to cheer about. Very recently we have read a ridiculous report submitted by IIM directors. The report had the views of Directors of IIMs that Girls are not able to cope up with the quantitative aptitude questions asked in CAT examination. So to allow girls to take admission in IIMs modifications in QA section of CAT examination is necessary and will be done from 2011 CAT examination onwards. The administrative set up of these institutions is completely cripled by our politicians even though they are autonomous organisation. How can we expect our nation to have an university ranked in top 200 universities of the world?
The fundamental objectives with which universities are developed are undoubtedly, as known to everyone, research, education and extension. Indian Universities have the same objectives and appreciable resources, though there is a need to increase the share of monetary resources for catering to the ever-changing technological infrastucture. The point where we lack is at the research quality and research planning. Besides the corruption at the time of screening the human resource, to make thes institutes functional. We have professors in universities who have not taken any research effort after the completion of academic research projects. why ? Answer lies with some of our fellow PG, PHD students who just get degree with piracy and copy paste technology - tearing apart the provisions of something called copyrights. These students should not be blamed only, some guides even to ease the work of thier students write thesis themselves. those who get degrees by this technology can simply not plan or carry any research even any teaching on their own. But such people find entries in thes premier institutes. One such person is enough to devastate, sometimes, a good lot of student resource. (this is a personal observation rather reality with every student).
@Sri: Only the upper elite can afford the actual cost of technical education. The vast majority is struggling with daily issues of food, water and shelter. They have the merit and the dedication, but not the means. If they have cleared the entrance exams with the far limited resources they have at their disposal, then they must get the education. If the system is not able to cater to them is unfair and not good for overall society in long term. True, the primary concern of people till now has been to get jobs, but that the evolution process. With liberation and growth, in last decade, there have been lots of entrepreneurs and every year still more are coming out to change that perception. You see lots of startups coming up, but that is once people have been confident that they can satisfy their basic needs.
I can see Indian Institute of Science is in the list of 'Top Universities by Reputation 2011'. Please find it in the following link. http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/reputation-rankings.html. Did I miss anything?
The so called Indian 'universities' are but trade schools and feeder lots for different job markets, and have ceased to be purveyors of knowledge, wisdom and intelligence. Students go there to learn a trade, such as business (which is the trade of other trades), commerce, medicine, technology and engineering, law, nursing etc. These universities are glorified versions of the schools of the Industrial Revolution Era where carpentry, plumbing, tin smithy, black smithy were taught. In the ancient times Universities in every civilization taught its students how to live a life of purpose and meaning and relieve human misery. They took their students through a journey of inquiry and exploration into the realms of the deepest issues that challenged the human mind. Those graduates became philosophers, statesmen, generals, kings and king-makers, leaders in their civilizations. They created lasting works of art, literature, biography and built empires, cities and nations. Their syllabus was not rationed and limited to Physics, Chemistry, Math and Biology, to the exclusion of philosophy, religion, scriptures, arts, literature, logic, language, and anthropology. Few Universities - perhaps none in India today follow that ideal of stirring the imagination of its students to greatness, while stirring up the inquiring, thinking capacity and the knowledge and wisdom required to reach lofty ideals. One thing common among today's great universities is that they do not sell business and technology to the exclusion of inquiries into the human condition through religion, the scriptures, arts, literature, history, biography and anthropology. Our 'universities' mass produce data processors - instead, they should be inspiring thinkers who are purveyors wisdom.
Rather than giving grants to these Universities handover them to Private Sector give the financial assistance to the students for studies and research, so we can make Good Universities, Top Brains for teaching and good students with placements immidiatly after education.
it is a matter of shame for us. India which had universities like Takshshila has now become so poor that it cant posses even last rank.
Lets raise some pertinent questions regarding these rankings:
1. Do we want an IIM or IIT in top universities list just for an “Indian-ego satisfaction”? I don’t see any reason to be unduely euphoric even if one IIM/IIT would have made to top 100 list as it will never be a representative sample of our higher education structure. We need to improve right from school level to secondary levels and then focus on skill-development rather than preparing student who just cram for marks. There is serious need to work towards prioritization of the goals of our educational system.
2. What do our universities lack? Wrong priorities of the educational system, undue political interference, mushrooming of colleges/universities (quality suffers)and seats for money (biggest cause of unqualified and incompetent products). Reservation can also be one of the factors but even US-universities have affirmative action schemes for blacks & other socially disadvantage groups!!
3. What changes can be possibly made? Well, as pointed out the focus has to be on skill-development which can enable gainful employment rather than add to burgeoning list of educated-yet-unemployed ! Secondly, plz invest in research and development. A cursory look at the number of Noble prizes won in Science by Indians would be enough to put Indians to shame. History is witness to the fact that any country (England, USA, germany, japan etc) have grown exponentially only on the basis of its R&D capabilities and unfortunately our country has not realized this even after 64 years of independence.
Finally lets not focus only on higher education. If strategic policy shifts can be made at junior and middle level, we will no doubt see a better results at higher level too and it will surely bring substantial changes to the whole educational structure and benefit large sections of the society.
Make these changes and IIT's and IIM's will be in top ranking
1. Merit based admission [ instead of reservation based ]
2. Funding for infrastructure and research
3. Education in your own mother-tongue
4. University - Industry interaction
5. Autonomy to every university with minimum interference from HRD on their education, syllabus, admissions
6. Encouragement towards research and development among students
Note: this is like a running race where a person need to first get proper nourishment, excersize, clear ambition, low parental pressure, etc etc , without that whats the use of repenting for ranking..
what a lot of wasteful analysis. I think its more important to worry about what these top 200 bring to the table. If the financial meltdown is any indication, I would argue, not much. The world of ratings is driven by vested interests that have little to do with the quality of education. we could do with a Top 200 ethical educational institutions that teach real values. The ethic of the Jungles - there is not enough to go around - has been propogated by most institutions knowingly or unknowingly. Let one of them stand out and be worth counting. Until then let us call a spade a spade - this is childish nonsense.
This article, while reeling out stats about who stands where, provides no information on the scoring system employed by the survey and where and why the Indian universities fell short. Sure, for an inquisitive reader, it's not difficult to look up that information on the internet. But, absence of that information makes this article very superficial. In my opinion, India needs to have its own objectives for its education system and our success/failure should be measured against those objectives. Getting elated/depressed when we happen to do well/poorly on an alien scoring system is not very wise. For example, the same US business schools are ranked very differently by two US-based surveys done by Business Week and US News and World report! So, the devil is in the details. For example, a scoring system that emphasizes academic publications in prestigious theoretical journals may be appropriate for a developed country that has the infrastructure in place to convert that theoretical research into practical industry applications. But, how appropriate is that measure in the Indian context? Let's say an Indian university does incentivize its faculty to excel on that measure. Guess where the output (graduates) of that university will find employment? Seeing the kind of knee-jerk reactions -- without any analysis --from the media and its readers as in evidence here is disheartening to say the least.Finally, comparing the efficiency of entities such as schools, universities, and hospitals that operate with a myriad inputs (quality of student in-take, funding, quality of staff, facilities, etc) and produce output that is also multi-dimensional (e.g. how many graduates, with what degrees, in what fields, contributions of the graduates to industry/society etc) is a complex problem. But, there are wonderful tools like Data Envelopment Analysis that address such problems. For starters, India should study the relative efficiencies of its universities. I bet there will be quite a few surprizes! For example, I doubt that IIT's will be at the top. (That is, for the caliber of their intake and the funding/facilities etc, they are surely underperforming.)
The non-standardisation of education norms acros the country (multiple boards, varying syllabuses, admission criteria, reservations etc.) coupled with education institutions promoted and run by politicians, degradation of teaching standards, fall in interest levels of 'teaching' as a career and non-existence of research based activities are fast ensuring the southward movement of our education system. These rankings demonstrate our incapability and un-willingness to address the erosion in one of the most crucial pillars of any country. As a nation, we even do not have the courage to support belated efforts in regulating and standardisaing the admission norms across the country (ex-Common admission tests for professional courses). So whom should we be blaming for our non-presence in such rankings?
Our Universities definitely lose out on Research and innovation part. They barely have the funds to sustain themselves forget R&D. Next is definitely caste based reservations for Teachers as well as students. We cannot expect quality output with sub-quality ingredients.
Even if there was one or two IIT's in top 200, would that have meant anything to boast about when most Indian engineering colleges don't produces graduates who are employable. Having come out of such college, I can see stark contrast between education system of India and US. It is routine in India to give theoretical papers to judge how much the student cam cram whereas in US only one can know what is meant by real learning. Irony is that these rankings are based on research publications and when in India, a masters or PhD student with weak fundamentals is just able to do well with his subjects, a student with undergrad from US university has build strong fundamentals and can therefore contribute to research. Fundamentals come from applying theory to problems not writing down the theories. Its time India gets its act together in terms of teaching methodologies.
The Indian economy is by and large not driven by innovation and thus does not require world class universities. We need degree granting factories that turns out massive numbers of graduates very fast. The focus of Indian universities should be to produce managers for manufacturing jobs that should hire the largest bulk of our workforce. India's macroeconomic focus should be on moving massive numbers of the working population from agriculture into manufacturing low tech items like toys etc. This is what China has done in the last 30 years. This is the first step towards industrialization. This doesn't require world class universities. Setting up world class universities and sinking money into them would be a massive waste of resources because the graduates of these universities will emigrate anyways. This money can be better utilized in strengthening our pathetic primary education system.
I am just contemplating how those days would have been when Indian education system had been on the top i.e. during the Gupta period. Nalanda University was one of the topmost universities of the world. And now, our universities are not even on top 200. The education system from primary to higher level is all to be blamed. Students are prepared to fetch marks and grab degrees. The real essence of being educated is really missing. The system of admissions (money based or quota based) right from pre-nursery to MA, MBA, ENGINEERING etc. is faulty. Even the appointment of teachers/ lecturers is based on favourtism/bribe or again quota. All this makes a vicious circle as the less talented teachers will obviously make less talented students, thus weakening the system on the whole. As a result, the ranks on the global front are downgrading which is the obvious thing. The way to improve the standard of education in the country is to bring competency, transperancy and checks at various steps of both admission to students as well as appointment of the teaching faculty. No need to say that ending with the quota system/ bribe etc. are the foremost things to be done in order to bring the topmost talent of the forefront.
It all boils down to economics. Indian students are reluctant to go for higher studies in foreign countries due to high expenditure. Foreign MNCs come to India and hire students from IITs and IIMs for their Indian operations due to cheaper salaries(as compared to a person doing the same job in their US/any other country office). Hence, the result is that Indian institutes make a high reputation in India with all the associated hype whereas the quality of education remains dismal and the final outcome/success in only judged by the placements that institute has. All this leads to no way out for the student who wanted to learn and took up that course not just for placements.
Well, I do not want to say much but how many Indian Universities and Indians have come out with an Innovative products that has been sold in the world market and are leaders? Our education system in India sucks. It is more of memorizing and spitting it on the exam paper rather than understanding and being practical. I am an Electronics Engineer who does not even know how to operate an AMP METER. How can we be in the world market or leaders who can do anything on our own? We have not been able to develop or innovate anything that is sold in the world market. We are just copy cats who do what others are doing. The day when Indians start really inventing and making products indigineously sold in the world market that is when we can say our Universities are good.
I totally agree with Venkat Shankar regarding politics in higher education in India. In my perception, except teaching, India lacks on all counts in the other ranking criterion. Although Indian students are the brightest graduates in the world and move on to study in the top Institutes overseas, to make them top Universities in the world by their research and intellect; I feel that IITs and IIMs need to form special research groups (if they do not exist yet) with each group headed by a top non-teaching scientist to spearhead research activity in his/her discipline with University-industry partnership. This will enable teaching faculty to focus primarily on quality teaching in UG and partly on PG level study, While PG level study should focus on research and publications which is one of the principal criteria for securing higher ranking. I am sure if this simple suggestion is adhered to, we can see some of our Universities in the top 50 in 5 years time.
For all the hype and noise about Indian Higher Education, it is indeed very disappointing that not one University figures among the Top 100. Cynics and critics may point out perhaps the ranking system is unfair or that the ranking the system is biased against Indian University system. It is important to understand the reason for such a situation, than blindly cast aspersions.Clearly, it is nothing to with the students. Indian students are among the best. Indian teachers must be good - Profs and Lecturers. They may or may not be in the same league as among the best Universities, but seem to be doing their job. But, if the students are good, the teachers must be ok. So, it is clearly down to administrators and the administrative system. This is where there is a complete break-down, largely due to political interference. The quality of administrators are pathetic. They have no vision nor the drive. They mostly indulge in politicking for more power and to dispense with favours. It is not enough if Vice Chancellors make lofty statements that their University attracts the best students etc etc. What have the VCs and Registrars done to make the Universities be among the Top 100 in the world. Even if IITs and IISc have not figured, what hope other Unis in India have. Clearly, the administration system of the Universities in India, as it exists today will not catapult any of the Indian Universities into the Top 100. Given the political will towards such ranking, there is no hope that Indian Universities will be in the reckoning anytime soon.
US$ 50,000 makes University of California the most expensive university in its ranking. Just how widespread is the budget crisis at University of California Berkeley? University of California Chancellor Robert J Birgeneau's ($500,000 salary) eight-year fiscal track record is dismal indeed. He would like to blame the politicians, since they stopped giving him every dollar he has asked for, and the state legislators do share some responsibility for the financial crisis. But not in the sense he means. A competent chancellor would have been on top of identifying inefficiencies in the system and then crafting a plan to fix them. Competent oversight by the Board of Regents and the legislature would have required him to provide data on problems and on what steps he was taking to solve them. Instead, every year Birgeneau would request a budget increase, the regents would agree to it, and the legislature would provide. The hard questions were avoided by all concerned, and the problems just piled up to $150 million of inefficiencies - until there was no money left. It's not that Birgeneau was unaware that there were, in fact, waste and inefficiencies in the system. Faculty and staff have raised issues with senior management, but when they failed to see relevant action taken, they stopped. Finally, Birgeneau ($500,000 salary) engaged some expensive ($7.2 million) consultants, Bain & Company, to tell him what he should have been able to find out from the bright, engaged people in his own organization. In short, there is plenty of blame to go around. Merely cutting out inefficiencies will not have the effect desired. But you never want a serious crisis to go to waste. An opportunity now exists for the UC President, Chairman of the UC Board of Regents Gould, California Legislators to jolt Cal back to life, applying some simple oversight check-and-balance management practices. Increasing the budget is not enough; transforming senior management is necessary. The faculty, Academic Senate, Cal. Alumni, financial donors, benefactors await Cal senior management's transformation. UC Berkeley public reprimand, censure: NCAA places Chancellor Birgeneau's men's basketball program on probation. The author who has 35 years' consulting experience, has taught at University of California Berkeley, where he was able to observe the culture and the way senior management work. (World class preeminent public research and teaching UC Berkeley ranking tumbles from 2nd best. In 2004 the London-based Times Higher Education ranked UC Berkeley the second leading university in the world, just behind Harvard; in 2009 that ranking tumbled to 39th place. By 2011 the ranking had not returned to 2nd best)
It is expected.Things are going to be tougher. A system which is cotrolled by people those have nothing to do with either knowledge or skill is bound to be third class or at best second class. Somebody should make a public report of world standing of Vice-Chancellors and Directors of IITs.I am pretty sure their academic achievements will bo not more than that of Research Associates of world class Institutes or at best that of Senior Lectures.
The purpose of education should be to prepare students for life not just for living. This is where our system lost the plot. The only aim of parents and teachers is to seek education that gets their children good jobs, open overseas opportunities and make them rich. The fundamental philosophy of education should change. When we are able to embrace McDonald, Pizza, KFC, Style, western habits and so on, why not embrace wonderful practices in education? In the western nations educators are worried that they are struggling to prepare students for the rapidly changing society even with latest practices and technoligies. In contrast as an educator I strongly believe that Indian schools are 'preparing students for our past', instead of future, with yesterday's practices and technologies. In that case, how can we expect any of Indian universities to be in the 200 top universities. Once IIT, Osmania, Madras, and REC used to be the best universities and colleges, but they also missed the list. This is purely because of the thoughtlessness of our politicians, educators and parents. The view from overseas is clear to many NRIs. India is is huge tree on which 1.2 billion people are sitting. While that itself is a burden to the tree, politicians, bureaucrats, and people from all wlaks of life are cutting down different parts of the tree. A huge bigotry is that inspite of all this they are shamelessly claiming that 'the tree is growing'. It is not too late to fix the system. This can only happen when everyone feels accountable to what they do and make a sincere effort to fix the system
Yes.. if we start dictating caste based seat allocation in all these universities, then we will stop seein our university names even in the Asian list. These top universities got their name but catering to the best. Best, I mean in knowledge. As far as Caste based admission, Money based admissions are not done, then we can expect our Universities to be amongst the World's best.
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