Times Higher Education (THE) — recognised world over for its ranking of higher education institutions — has agreed to draw up an India-specific indicator that would act as a parameter for global education stakeholders and international students to judge Indian educational institutions.
This was disclosed by Higher Education Secretary in the Union Human Resource Development Ministry Ashok Thakur.
With Indian institutions not doing particularly well on the ranking list of both THE and QS – partly because of Indian course structures — an India-specific indicator, it is hoped, would address the structural differences.
Nodal officerAlso, all Centrally-funded institutions — be they the universities, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) or the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) — will have a nodal officer for their respective genres to provide data to the ranking agencies.
Rankings have assumed significance as India is attempting to integrate with the global education market. Though the IITs, IIMs, All India Institute of Medical Sciences and some of the Central and State universities have produced the leading lights in their respective fields world over — contributing to India’s brain drain — these institutions do not feature very high on ranking lists.
Reverse brain drainMeanwhile, according to Mr. Thakur, the IITs and IIMs are witnessing a “reverse brain drain” as many expatriates are returning to these institutions as faculty members.
