18 Indian varsities in top 200 in THE Asia rankings
NEW DELHI: Eighteen Indian universities, three more than last year, have made it to the top 200 in this year’s Times Higher Education (THE) Asia University Rankings.
The Indian Institute of Science (IISC) continues to be the best domestic institution with a rank of 37 in Asia, followed by the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITS) in Ropar and Indore. Three new names—king George’s Medical University in Lucknow, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in Delhi and Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala—have entered the top 200 list for the first time, the British ranking agency said on Wednesday.
Three Indian institutions figure in the top 100 against four last year. Besides, all the top five domestic schools have dropped in rankings. While IISC dropped one rank from last year, IIT Ropar dropped eight positions to 55th place, and IIT Indore dropped 23 positions to 78th place. Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai, a staterun deemed university, was ranked 122, 30 ranks below its 2020 position, and IIT Gandhinagar was ranked at 137 against 114 last year. King George’s Medical University, which made its debut in 2021, was placed 139th.
“THE Asia University Rankings are becoming increasingly competitive every year…it’s great to see India continue to secure a number of positions in the top 100, and very impressive to see three debut institutions in the top 200,” said Phil Baty, chief knowledge officer at THE.
“India’s record number of participating institutions this year is testament to the willingness of its universities to stand up on the regional and world stage to showcase their strengths and benchmark against their peers. We hope that we continue to see numbers grow over the coming years as Indian universities adapt to the post-covid world and the opportunities it may present to attract and retain more regional students and academic staff as disruption to traditional talent flow continues,” added Baty.
To be sure, India’s top seven IITS, including those in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, have collectively decided to not participate in the rankings since 2020 as they believe that THE needs to “convince them about the parameters and transparency in their ranking process”.
At least 63 Indian universities participated in this year’s rankings, including 14 institutions debuting. This puts India at third place overall in terms of university representation behind Japan (116 universities) and China (91).
Of the 49 Indian universities appearing in the rankings for at least the second consecutive year, the majority of 51% have maintained or improved on their 2020 ranking positions.
Overall, 551 universities appeared in rankings this year from 30 countries in Asia. China’s Tsinghua University topped the Asian league table, followed by Peking University (China) and the National University of Singapore.