The Indian Institute of Science broke into the top 100 in the natural sciences category of the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2021, which were released on Thursday.
With regard to specific subject rankings, there are two new entrants to the top 100 list: JNU’s anthropology programme and O.P. Jindal Global University’s law programme, which is also the only private institution on the list.
In the broad engineering and technology category, only three institutions made it to the top 100 — the IITS Bombay, Delhi and Madras — in comparison to five institutions last year. The IITs Kharagpur and Kanpur dropped out of the top 100 though the former is one of the government’s Institutes of Eminence (IoEs). The Bombay, Delhi and Madras IITs, which are also IoEs getting extra Central funding with the specific aim of rising in global rankings, have all dropped several places this year as well.
In the other two broad categories, the University of Delhi was the highest ranked Indian institution in social sciences and management, but fell 48 places to drop out of the top 200. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences remained the only institution in the top 300 in life sciences and medicine, but also dropped more than 10 places.
Overall, 25 Indian programmes from 12 institutions made it to the top 100 in their specific subject areas, two fewer than in 2020. Two programmes from the IIT Bombay and one each from the IITs Madras and Kharagpur slipped out of the list. Only two of the IoE programmes in the top 100 subject-specific list improved their rankings this year.
The top ranked Indian programme globally is the IIT Madras petroleum engineering which dropped one place to the 30th rank, followed by mineral and mining engineering at IITs Bombay and Kharagpur, which are ranked at 41st and 44th place in their field. The University of Delhi’s development studies programme is the only other one in the top 50, sliding in at the 50th rank.
Releasing the rankings at a virtual event, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ said reforms brought in through the new National Education Policy would pave the way towards internationalisation of Indian education and also encourage the world’s top universities to open campuses in India.
“In the next two years, we will take the number [of institutions with programmes in the top 100] from 12 to 25,” said NITI Aayog chief executive Amitabh Kant at the event.
QS Head of Evaluation Leigh Kamolins noted that India had a good performance in COVID-19 research, ranking fifth in the world in terms of the number of published research papers on the pandemic.
The QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World University Rankings by Subject use four indicators: academic reputation, employer reputation, research citation per paper and an index used to measure the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist or scholar. Institutions are ranked according to five broad categories, as well as in 51 specific subjects.