India Figures Nowhere In World University Rankings

For a country with a genetic predisposition to comparisons and a national fetish for chest thumping, here is some news that is bound to take the wind off our sails. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2016-17 does not figure a single Indian University in the top 200 list! Even the sacrosanct Indian Institute of Science is pushed over to the 201-250 bracket.

IIT Bombay manages a place in the 351-400 slot with IITs Delhi, Kanpur and Madras only scoring a berth in the 401 – 500 segment.

The rankings would naturally beg the question: How is it possible that the likes of Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai or Indra Noori are where they are? Well, the answer probably reflects the rankings - they all went abroad from their Masters degree and benefitted from the top class American universities.

Not to belittle their individual capacities, but the top class higher education universities had a major role in molding them and prepping them for success. The list of Indians who graduated from the top world universities and have left their footprints on the pavement of success is indeed exhaustive.

The Hallowed Top Ten World Universities

For the first time, a university from outside the United States has topped the list. Oxford University surpassed California Institute of Technology to claim the top position in the 2016-17 Times World University Rankings. CalTech had earlier been holding this position for the last six years.

The top ten universities list is as follows:

1 University of Oxford United Kingdom

2 California Institute of Technology United States

3 Stanford University United States

4 University of Cambridge United Kingdom

5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States

6 Harvard University United States

7 Princeton University United States

8 Imperial College London United Kingdom

9 ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich Switzerland

10 University of California, Berkeley United States

Said to be the most comprehensive global rankings going, the Times World University Rankings draws on 13 separate performance indicators and assesses institutions on their core missions – not only research, but also teaching, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

The performance indicators are grouped into five areas:

· Teaching (the learning environment)

· Research (volume, income and reputation)

· Citations (research influence)

· International outlook (staff, students and research)

· Industry income (knowledge transfer)

A detailed explanation of the ranking indicators can viewed here

Indian Universities that managed ranks within the top thousand are as follows:

201-250 Indian Institute of Science

351-400 IIT Bombay

401-500 IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras,

501-600 IIT Kharagpur, IIT Roorkee, Jadhavpur University

601-800

Aligarh Muslim University, BITS Pilani, University of Calcutta, University of Delhi, IIT Guwahati, NIT Rourkela, Punjab University, Savitribhai Phule University, Sri Venkateshwara University, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Tezpur University

801+

Acharya Nagarjuna University, Amity, Amrita, Andhra, Cochin University of Science & Technology, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Manipal University, Osmania University, SASTRA University, Sathyabama University, SRM University, Vellore Institute of Technology.