CHENNAI: The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras made it to the list of top 50 Asian universities after securing the 43rd position, as per QS Asia University Rankings for 2016. Last year, the institution was ranked at 56th place. Five other Indian institutions were figured in the top 50 list this year.
Bhaskar Ramamurth, Director of IIT Madras, said, “We are encouraged by our steep rise from the 56th position in last year’s QS Asia University Rankings to the 43rd position this year. We have been focusing on improving our research, teaching and overall curriculum as part of our Strategic Plan 2020, and it appears to be paying off. We will persevere and do our best to move still further up in the Asian and global rankings in the coming years.”
Explaining the difference of QS Asia Rankings and world rankings, P Sriram, Dean of Administration for IIT-M, said that the QS Asia Rankings are similar (but not the same) to the global rankings, but is limited to institutions in Asia.
Not much information is sought from institutions, and the details are submitted only once for all the rankings (global, BRICS, Asia, etc). This is mostly in the form of number of faculty, number of students and such. Information on publications is obtained directly by QS from other sources.
“We have been trying to increase the quality and quantity of publications, which is one of the most important metrics used, not only in QS rankings, but several others as well. We are also making significant efforts to bring in international faculty and students – through exchange programme, joint degree programs and the like,” he added.
When asked what are the points IIT-Madras is losing out on, Sriram said, “It is in the perception scores (results of surveys), especially, the academic perception scores. We have to make IIT-Madras more visible internationally and make our research strengths visible in a widespread manner in order to enhance our academic reputation score.”