QS World University Rankings : 44 Indian courses make it to Top 100
In the QS World University Rankings released on 22 March 2023, 44 Indian courses in different disciplines have been featured in the Global top 100 list.
While the rankings account for 54 academic disciplines, the Indian Varisites have excelled in Computer Science, Chemistry, Biological Sciences, Business Studies, and Physics. In 2022, 35 Indian programmes made it to the top 100 list.
these Courses in top 100
Major courses offered by IITs have been featured in the rankings, namely, IIT Delhi’s Electrical engineering programme which came under the top 50 categories globally, placed 49th. The same programme offered by IIT Kanpur has been placed 87th, featuring in the top 100 categories for the first time.
The Mathematics programme offered by IIT Bombay scored 92nd rank. Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Sociology course took 68th place, showing a rise of 33 places. The University of Delhi followed the lead in Sociology, ranking 91.
In Medicine, the Dentistry programme offered by the Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences in Chennai was one of the best-performing institutions among Indian institutes, it secured 13th rank globally, an improvement from its 18th position last year.
“It is the only Indian university to achieve a perfect score (100/100) in both Citations per Paper and H Index,” the OS informed in its statement. The next two highest-ranked universities in these tables are the IIT Madras – placed 21st in Petroleum Engineering (up 9 places) and the Indian School of Mines University, Dhanbad – placed 25th (up one place) in Engineering (Mineral and Mining).
Is this the contribution of Institutes of Eminence?
According to the statement by QS, 11 Institutes of Eminence (IoE), including both IIT-Delhi and IIT-Bombay, that were declared by the government in 2018 for an upgrade to world-class status constituted 44% of the overall Indian entries (158) this year. “Five and a half years after the inception of India’s Institutes of Eminence scheme, its universities continue to show a steady improvement in the rankings, with 70% of their entries rising or remaining stable,” it notes.
A majority of the IoE saw more courses gain places than those that slipped. On the other hand, Delhi University, the most representative varsity from India, saw seven out of 27 programmes improve, while 12 declined.
Speaking on India’s improving positioning in University World Rankings, QS Research Director, Ben Sowter, said that several programs at India’s privately-run Institutes of Eminence have made progress this year, demonstrating the positive role that well-regulated private provision can have in enhancing India’s higher education sector.
He further stated that the 20 private institutions featured in this edition had, a total of 66 entries, including 21 ranked for the first time wherein a majority of these have either shown improvement or remain stable compared to last year’s edition. “Considering only countries with more than ten universities ranked in our ranking, India is the second-most improved in Asia. Its overall performance in these tables improved by 17.2% year on year, after Mainland China which improved by 21.9%,” he noted.
what is the QS Ranking methodology ?
The methodology of the rankings shared by the QS shows that five components are used to rank universities, namely, academic reputation, employer reputation, research citations per paper, H-index, and international research network.
The h-index is a way of measuring both the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist or scholar. For these rankings, responses were drawn from over 1,30,000 academics worldwide.
The Ranking highlights that globally India saw its research output grow by 54% between 2017 and 2022, producing the world’s fourth most research (1.3 million academic papers between 2017 and 2022), behind world leader China (4.5 million), the United States (4.4 million) and the United Kingdom (1.4 million). However, in citation count, it lags far behind. “From 2017 to 2021, India saw 15% of its publications cited in top journals. Meanwhile, its closest competitors in terms of research output volume, the United Kingdom and Germany boast top journal citation percentages more than double that, 38% and 33% respectively,” the QS statement notes.
India is the second most represented country in Asia for the number of ranked universities (66), after China (Mainland) (99), and the fourth most represented country for the overall number of entries across the 54 narrow subjects (314) after China (Mainland), South Korea and Japan.
