JNU enters top 1000 global universities ranking

Jawaharlal Nehru University has entered the top 1,000 of the QS World University rankings for the primary time, as its new undergraduate engineering programme now makes it eligible for the score. It debuted on the 561-570 ranking band within the rankings, which solely charge establishments providing each undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

Overall, there are 22 Indian establishments within the top 1,000 checklist in comparison with 21 final yr, with the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Madras making main strides in rankings.

However, some establishments are nonetheless apprehensive that the rankings don’t precisely mirror the standard of schooling in India, as they’re largely depending on worldwide notion elements.

IIT Bombay maintained its place because the top Indian establishment for the fourth consecutive yr, though it fell 5 locations within the global rankings to the joint 177th place. IIT Delhi (185th rank) overtook the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (186th rank), giving India three establishments on this planet’s top 100. IISc was additionally declared the world’s top analysis college by the indicator of most citations per school member, when adjusted for school dimension.

The citations per school metric have been additionally key to the 75 rank soar by IIT Guwahati and the 73 rank soar by IIT Kanpur, in accordance with QS regional director Ashwin Fernandes. The two establishments additionally improved their educational and employer popularity scores respectively, he stated.

However, one IIT director, who didn’t want to be named, alleged that this yr’s enchancment in scores was merely a manipulation of numbers by the rankings company, pushed by industrial pressures. Of the 35 Indian establishments within the rankings, 20 have improved on educational popularity this yr.

“Half of the score comes from reputation indicators which are based on perception, rather than any objective methodology. They cannot afford too much unhappiness, or they may face a boycott like the THE [Times Higher Education rankings], so they manipulate the numbers. It does not reflect the quality of Indian education in any real sense,” stated the director, including that an Education Ministry committee arrange a yr in the past to enhance global notion had not made any progress.

Higher Education Secretary Amit Khare stated the committee was but to submit its report a yr on, however argued that the advance in QS scores could possibly be attributed to the National Education Policy. “The NEP gave a free hand to institutions which has fuelled enthusiasm. There is a renewed focus on research and on new ways of teaching, and that has paid off,” he stated.

Indian establishments proceed to wrestle within the institutional instructing capability class, measured by faculty-student ratio, with 23 establishments seeing a drop of their scores. However, the IIT director identified that this isn’t due to any drop in hiring, however somewhat an elevated scholar consumption mandated by the federal government to implement reservations for economically weaker sections.

“We hire faculty at a much higher rate than western universities, but the ratio goes down because our student population growth is even faster. Plus, more faculty actually harms us on the citations per faculty indicator,” famous the director.

The COVID-19 pandemic has additionally resulted in a lower in worldwide college students and college, hurting these scores as properly.

The IIT director additionally alleged that QS is pushed by industrial considerations, charging establishments a charge to assist them handle and enhance perceptions, resulting in a battle of curiosity.

QS spokesperson Simone Bizzozero admitted that a few Indian establishments pay to make use of QS’ benchmarking options, a set of instruments permitting universities “to identify areas of excellence and areas requiring improvement or attention”, however added that this industrial service is “functionally independent” from the ranking operations and is ruled by clear battle of curiosity insurance policies.