The Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) has been ranked in the top 10 of Times Higher Education’s (THE) Best Small Universities-2017 global rankings that looks only at universities with fewer than 5,000 students.
At rank 8, IISc. is the only Indian university in the list of 20, and is also the second-highest ranked Asian University.
The list is topped by California Institute of Technology (Caltech). In the world university ranking, however, it sits in the range of 201-250 when compared with larger universities also.
“While it is good, we want to be in the top five of the global university rankings also. IISc. is a small university in terms of students, and perhaps other universities have an edge when it comes to the large undergraduate programmes they run,” said Anurag Kumar, Director, IISc.
Around 3,400 students study in IISc., which has a full-fledged postgraduate and Ph.D. programme.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah tweeted: “Hearty congratulations to the faculty, students and patrons of @iiscbangalore for this achievement! The state & country stand proud today!”
PTI adds:
Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar has congratulated IISc for the recognition. “It is a good news for us that one of our institutions has been ranked among the world’s top 10 universities. This shows our determination to improve quality of education at all levels and increased focus on research and innovation,” he said on sidelines of an event here.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings was founded in 2004 by the U.K.-based Times Higher Education (THE) magazine. It provides the definitive list of the world’s best universities, evaluated across teaching, research, international outlook, reputation and more.
Despite the new high, India has two misses this year. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, and Savitribai Phule Pune University, which were ranked 14 and 18 respectively in the 2016 edition, could not retain their spots in the top 20 this time.
IISc, a public university for scientific research and higher education, was established in 1909 with active support from Jamsetji Tata and Sir Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, the Maharaja of Mysore.
In 2015-16, it became the first Indian institute to be ranked among the top 100 in THE World University Rankings for engineering and technology at 99th position.