The QS World University Rankings 2013/14 declared on September 10, threw up predictable results laced with a few surprises. While Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, once gain came thumbs up in the race for the best universities worldwide, Harvard University, USA, tipped Cambridge University, UK, to bag the second place. Following Cambridge is a spate of UK universities — University College London, Imperial College London and University of Oxford, who have taken up fourth, fifth and sixth places in the list respectively. The lower end of the top 10 is dominated by US institutions — Stanford University, Yale University and University of Chicago in that order.
The rankings have been drawn from the following parameters — academic reputation (40 per cent), employer reputation (10 per cent), faculty-student ratio (20 per cent), citations per faculty (20 per cent), international students (5 per cent) and international faculty (5 per cent) provided by 3,000 institutions worldwide.
This year saw a record number of six UK institutions in the top 20 with Edinburgh and King’s College London making their debuts, clearly signalling that a UK education is one of the best bets. Best performing countries in terms of the number of universities in the top 800 are as follows — US (144), UK (69), Germany (42), France (40) and Japan (38).
However, the placement of Indian institutions in the list is giving little to cheer about. While no Indian university features in the top 200, IIT-Delhi placed at 222 is the highest merit we have secured. Eleven Indian institutions feature in the top 800 — IIT-Bombay (233) and IIT-Kanpur (295) made it to the top 300. IIT-Madras is ranked 313 and IIT-Kharagpur stands at 346. It is important to note that when it comes to top 400, IITs are the only ones to have made it.
Most of them have also fallen in their rankings compared to 2012 — IIT-Delhi has slipped 10 places, IIT-Bombay fell from 227 to 233, IIT-Kanpur from 278 to 295 and IIT-Madras from 312 to 313. However, IIT-Kharagpur has made some progress moving from 349 to 346.
The other Indian institutes to have made to the top 800 include IIT-Rourkee (401), Delhi University (441), IIT-Guwahati and Mumbai University tied at 601, similar is the case with University of Pune and Kolkata, who are tied at 701.
Details at www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings.