The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai has achieved its highest-ever ranking, entering the top 150 universities in the world according to the latest QS World University Ranking. This is the first time in eight years that an Indian higher education institution has made it to the top 150 list. The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore was previously ranked 147 in 2016.
IIT Bombay’s Impressive Leap and IISc’s Decline
IIT Bombay has made an impressive leap by climbing 23 positions to secure the 149th rank globally in this year’s rankings. However, there have been significant fluctuations in the list, with IISc falling 70 positions to rank 225. It now stands as the third-highest ranked Indian institution, compared to being the best Indian institution last year. Similarly, IIT Delhi fell from 174 to 197, IIT Kanpur from 264 to 278, and IIT Madras from 250 to 285, among others.
The ranking agency, QS Quacquarelli Symonds, based in the UK, has attributed these fluctuations partly to a revision of the assessment parameters this year. The new indicators introduced include sustainability, employment outcomes, and international research network, each carrying a weightage of 5%. To accommodate these indicators, adjustments were made to the importance assigned to other parameters. The weightage given to the academic reputation indicator was lowered from 40% to 30%, the emphasis on faculty-student ratio was decreased from 15% to 10%, and the significance attributed to the employer reputation indicator was increased from 10% to 15%.
The decrease in emphasis on the faculty-student ratio has had a negative impact on institutions like IISc, which is primarily research-focused with a lower teaching load compared to the IITs. IISc had previously performed well on the faculty-student ratio indicator, but its ranking has been affected due to the decreased weightage. However, according to a QS spokesperson, this is not the sole factor that led to IISc’s fall in rankings. Several other indicators, including those focusing on global engagement, citations per faculty, and employer reputation, also contributed to the decline.
IIT Bombay’s Remarkable Achievements in Employment Reputation and Research Impact
IIT Bombay has shown excellence in the employment reputation and citation per faculty parameters. There has been a significant improvement in citation per faculty, with the score rising from 55.1 last year to an impressive 73.1 this year. Over the past five years, the institute has also improved its employer reputation ranking and citations per faculty rank.
According to the director of IIT Bombay, Subhasis Chaudhuri, the research productivity of the institute received a boost during the pandemic lockdown, resulting in numerous research papers published in high-impact journals and increased citations, contributing to the improved ranking.
In this year’s rankings, India has a total of 45 universities listed, making it the seventh most represented country globally and the third in Asia. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US topped the World University Ranking for the twelfth consecutive time, followed closely by Cambridge University and Oxford University in the UK. The National University of Singapore (NUS) became the first Asian university to enter the top 10, moving up three positions from last year.
Overall, American universities dominated the top 20, with three Australian universities making significant gains. ETH Zurich retained its title as the best university in Europe for the sixteenth consecutive year.
