According to the 12th edition of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS ) World University Rankings by Subject was released Wednesday.
Seven of the eleven Institutes of Eminence (IoE), designated by the government for upgrade to world-class status, offer some of the programs ranked in the top 100 by the QS. The previous edition of the QS subject ranking featured 25 programs offered by 12 educational institutions in India.
As in the previous rounds, technical courses at the age of 19 account for the maximum number of programs offered in India that made it to the top 100 list. IIT Bombay leads the pack with as many as eight of its engineering programs – Mineral and Mining, Electrical and Electronic, Mechanical, Computer Science, Chemistry, Materials Science, Art and Design, Civil and Structural – and finds a place in the top 100.
It is noteworthy that the two programs that have registered the best achievements of Indian institutes are offered by Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences and Indian School of Mines (ISM) University, Dhanbad, two institutes that ranked among the top for the first time 100 category have broken through. The dentistry program of the Tamil Nadu-based Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences ranks 18th globally while Mineral and Mining Engineering offered by ISM Dhanbad ranks 26th.
Aside from the Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, the only private higher education institution to make the top 100 is OP Jindal Global University, with its law program ranked 70th worldwide.
Two Indian universities made the top 100 in Business and Management – the Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Bangalore and IIM-Ahmedabad. In a statement, QS Research Director Ben Sowter said: “One of the biggest challenges India faces is education – providing high quality tertiary education in the face of exploding demand: this was recognized by the 2020 NEP, which the ambitious target of a gross enrollment rate of 50% by 2035.”
“Therefore, it should provide some reassurance that the number of Indian programs appearing in our 51 subject rankings has increased this year – from 233 to 274 – where it had previously decreased. The QS also notes that several programs from India’s private Institutes of Eminence progress this year, demonstrating the positive role well-regulated private facilities can have in improving India’s higher education,” Sowter added.
A look at the performance of other Asian countries shows that 215 programs offered by Chinese educational institutions are among the top 100 in the world in their respective subjects, followed by South Korea (142), Japan (122), Hong Kong (118) , and Singapore (78). The QS researchers ranked the institutions on the basis of, among other things, scores in academic reputation, employer reputation and research citations per paper.
The scores are the result of analysis of responses from approximately 13,000 academics around the world, employers, research into the productivity and impact of a scientist or scholar’s published work based on citations drawn from them, and the “ability of institutions to the geography of their international research network by establishing sustainable research partnerships with other higher education institutions,” according to the ranking methodology shared by the QS.
