India’s quest for a higher rung in world university rankings remains a distant dream with not one Indian higher education institution making it to the top 200 club in the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings for 2014-15. India marks its presence in the 276-300 range and the only good news is that there are now two instead of one Indian university among the top 300 universities. The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) — participating in the quest for THE rankings for the first time — shared joint honours with Panjab University which was the top-ranking Indian institution last year.
Where the two universities stand within this bandwidth is not provided as institutions this low down the ranking list are not ranked individually and just placed in a certain band. Panjab University has, in fact, slipped from the 226-250 range to the 276-300 segment.
Two other institutions which have made it to the ranking list are the Indian Institutes of Technology, Bombay and Roorkee. Both are in the 351-400 range. This is the first time IIT-Bombay participated in the rankings.
Editor of THE World University Rankings, Phil Baty, said: “It should be a cause for serious concern that a country of India’s size, growing economic strength and great intellectual history, does not yet have a top-200 entrant, and does not seem to be making enough progress up the rankings. The world rankings are extremely competitive, and India needs to ensure that it does not fall too far behind.”
