QS Quacquarelli Symonds, global higher education analysts, released the seventeenth edition of the QS World University Rankings – the world’s most-consulted, most-covered source of comparative information about university performance. The University of Delhi has been ranked in the 501-510 slot as against last year’s 474th rank. The 2021 global rankings were based on six indicators: academic reputation, employer reputation, citations per faculty, faculty/student ratio, international faculty ratio and international student ratio. These rankings are pivotal for the aspirants to choose the institutes for higher education.
All in all, 21 Indian higher education institutions have found place among the world’s top 1000. Of these 21 universities, 14 withstood a fall in the rank, while four have improved their position. Among other Indian institutes that featured in the list, IIT Bombay grabbed the top notch at rank 172, compared to last year’s 152nd rank globally, thus witnessing a 20-slot dip. IISc Bengaluru was at the 185th spot against last year’s 184th rank. IIT Delhi secured the 193rd rank as against 182nd rank last year. Other IITs in the top 500 are: Madras at 275th, Kharagpur at 314th, Kanpur at 350th, Roorkee at 383rd and Guwahati at 470th.
Notably, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, has been ranked 470 globally which is an improvement of 21 places from last year when it was at 491. Institutes that marginally slipped in ranks over the past one year are: IIT Delhi, IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur, IISc Bangalore, Delhi University, Hyderabad Central University, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS-Pilani), Anna University and Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT).
Globally, Massachusetts Institute of Technology secured the 1st rank for the 9th time in row. The US hegemony continued as Stanford University, Harvard University and California Institute of Technology secured the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rank respectively. The University of Oxford ranked at 5th and its compatriot University of Cambridge stood at 7th. The National University of Singapore was the best performing Asian institute at 11th slot.
Ben Sowter, the Director of Research at QS said, “Though India’s universities have dropped as a group this year, this is because of other universities across the world making increasingly-intense efforts to enhance their educational offerings. To regain the lost ground, Indian higher education must find ways of increasing teaching capacity, and of attracting more talented students and faculty from across the world to study in India. There is plenty of potential, and there are pockets of excellence, within the Indian system.”
