Current Events
India's Universities & IITs Slide Off The Map
by KANIKA TANDON
India does not appear in the Top 200 of the recently released QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World
University Rankings. Even as the United States and the United Kingdom continue to dominate the
international rankings scene, India’s highest-ranked institution,
IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) - Delhi, stands at 218th position - 16 places down from last year’s
202nd place.
The United Kingdom claimed five of the top 20 places this year,
including the top rank. Cambridge University maintained its slender
advantage over Harvard to be the world’s number one university for the
second time in a row. Oxford (5) moved up one rank followed by Imperial
College London (6) and University College London (7). The University of
Edinburgh (20) moved up two places this year.
Although several
top U.S. institutions have been hit by reduced endowments and budget
restrictions, its supremacy continues with 13 of the U.S. universities
featuring in the top 20, six of them in the top 10. Apart from Harvard,
the other five U.S. universities among the Top 10 are: MIT (3), Yale
University (4), University of Chicago (8), University of Pennsylvania
(9) and Columbia University (10).
The monopoly of the U.S. and the
U.K. in the top 20 is only briefly interrupted by the presence of Canada
and Switzerland. McGill University of Canada climbed up two places from
19th rank in 2010 to 17th position in 2011. Switzerland’s ETH Zurich
maintained its 18th rank this year as well.
This neck-to-neck
competition between the U.S. and the U.K. is not replicated when India’s
performance is compared with other Asian countries.
While India is yet
to secure a place in the top 200, other Asian countries such as China,
Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan sit comfortably among the Top 100
of the rankings table, led by University of Hong Kong (22) and
University of Tokyo (25).
Indian universities have disappointed
this year. All the universities - including the star performers of the
country, the IITs - have dropped down several ranks.
IIT-Delhi (was ranked 202, now ranks 218); IIT-Bombay (was 187, now
225); IIT-Madras (was 262, now 281); IIT-Kanpur (was 249, now 306);
IIT-Kharagpur (was 311, now 341); IIT-Roorkee (was 428, now 438) and
IIT-Guwahati (was 501, now 563). The other universities have followed
suit - University of Delhi (was 371, now 398); University of Mumbai (was
493, now 578); University of Calcutta (was 506, now 649) and University
of Pune (was 578, now 661).
India’s weak points? The lack of
quality research and internationalisation. But this time, the fall in
the rankings is escalated by the fall in all the universities’ academic
reputation.
The employer reputation of IIT-Bombay, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Guwahati and universities of Mumbai, Calcutta and Pune has slid backwards too. For the academic and employer ratings, inputs from as many as 33,000 academics and 16,785 employers from more than 130 countries were taken by QS, the largest surveys of their kind ever conducted.
The author works for Quacquarelli Symonds (Q.S.).
[Courtesy: Hindustan Times]
September 15, 2011
Conversation about this article
1: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), September 15, 2011, 7:15 AM.
No surprises here ... Economic success and material goods is all that matters for 'holier-than-thou' desis. Why do anything, even build good and solid educational institutions, if you can pay way into and out of everything! Including exam results, driving licences, pilot licences! Proper, top-notch education and truthful living are essential for any civilized society. Neither are anywhere in sight in present-day India.
2: Vimal Sagar (Gurgaon, India), September 15, 2011, 8:31 AM.
Somebody has said it before me, but it`s worth repeating: It`s both India`s strength and India`s weakness, and it is taking us to hell in a handbasket: no matter how bad things get, no matter how much worse they keep on getting, we have the ability to carry on as if things are normal and all`s well with the world. These pesty studies, reports and indexes from world bodies are mere irritants and will be duly ignored and forgotten. No one`s going to do anything. The intelligent ones will jump ship, because there`s no other choice ... it`s the Titanic all over again. The rest will go down with the ship, in perfect slow-motion.
3: Bibek Singh (Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S.A.), September 15, 2011, 9:20 AM.
Over the past 25-30 years, various factors like increased quota/reservation and shrinking funds have mainly contributed to such low ratings. In 1990, 22.5% seats were reserved for special groups (which were identified as historically and systemically neglected.) Since 2008, 49.5% seats are now reserved for SC/ST/OBCs. Faculty-to-student ratio used to be 1:6 in 1990, but is now around 1:9. The student fees has astronomically increased from Rs 200 to Rs 200,000 per annum. Can you believe it! I strongly feel that this has also to do with the steps taken by India after the cold war (globalization, etc). As you might know, the IITs were initially funded by various western countries. For example, Russia helped in setting up IIT Bombay, the U.S, helped IIT Kanpur, (West) Germany helped IIT Madras, and so on. As far as I know, almost all the students used to go abroad (to these developed nations), post completion of their studies. This period was infamously known as 'brain drain' in India. Till 1991, IITs used to get HUGE grants from the India Government. If a typical engineering college in India receives around US $2-4 million annually, each IIT receives around US $26-28 million. The major chunk is foreign contribution. However, post cold-war, the situation changed dramatically. Consider these facts. Students used to pay around Rs 150 per annum in 1990. In 1995 (when I joined), the fees rose to around Rs. 7000 per annum. In 1997, it was increased to Rs 21,000. Current fee is around Rs 50,000 per annum and is expected to be Rs. 200,000 from 2013 onwards. So it appears that not just the internal policy decisions (like reservations, etc.) or attitude towards education but foreign funding is also impacting the operations at these IIT institutions significantly.
4: Ravinder Singh (Westerville, Ohio, U.S.A.), September 15, 2011, 10:33 AM.
Well, let's not be so naive as to believe every study that spews out rankings. Who is doing the measuring and who is funding what vested interests might there be? My impression (and this is obviously not a "scientific study") is that Indian grade schools do a much better job than their counterparts in the U.S., but the University experience is much better in the West.
5: A.J. Singh (San Francisco, Califonia, U.S.A.), September 15, 2011, 11:53 AM.
The major problem with India and Indian institutions is that they are all backward looking. They are still grappling with yesterday's issues (corruption, caste-based reservations are only a couple issues that jump out) and a general moral disintegration of society that there is absolutely no vision to build a stronger country. Everyone is so focused on their vested interests that they do not even know what problems India will face in the coming years - forget about taking proactive steps to prevent or solve them. People like to think that Indians are entrepreneurs, but the brand they display is but the choice when the only other option is death by starvation.
6: Sunny (London, England), September 16, 2011, 4:47 AM.
Don't read too much into such reports. There are an equal amount of reports (western I might add) that indicate the general scientific standard coming out of, say, IIT is higher than that of MIT.
7: Meena Verma (India), September 16, 2011, 6:13 PM.
Who needs universities when we have Bollywood!
8: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), September 17, 2011, 9:37 AM.
For all 'clean', fairly decent European-born Sikhs like myself, a visit to these institutions in India is quite an experience. The canteens, for example, look like they're straight from a Dickens' novel. The institutional staff are arrogant and behave like they are demi-gods, with the students just slightly behind. It would be great if they had substance to back it up, and some understanding of humility, equality and similar concepts. Are they really shaping the country's future?
9: Prakash Singh Bagga (India), September 18, 2011, 10:02 AM.
In India, where politics plays a vital role in every sphere of life, the deteriorating condition of such institutions is not an exception. Here we can only talk of research and development, but without proper equipment and funds. Corruption is the major factor in all decisions. Self-interest and personal agendas further add to this woe. There's no interaction of institutions with industries. Industries do not support any resarch programmes for such institutions. Inspite of all these, we produce engineers who excel abroad when they get the opportunity of demonstrating their skills.
10: Blighty Singh (London, United Kingdom), September 22, 2011, 4:39 AM.
I don't think we can expect too much from a country where the largest and arguably one of its most prestigious universities is called the 'Lovely Professional University'. Having seen it's huge sprawling campus, I can honestly say it is indeed lovely and I have no reason to doubt it's professionalism but ... having names such as 'Lovely Professional University' are hardly the type that command global respect when it comes to university rankings.