Experts share plan to help universities get global ranks
A 10-point ambitious growth and reform plan for Indian universities was presented, on Monday, at an event in the national capital to enable them to achieve global rankings.
The plan was presented by OP Jindal Global University founding vice chancellor Prof. (Dr) C. Raj Kumar and Ashwin Fernandes, regional director (Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia) QS Quacquarelli Symonds, and CEO of QS IGAUGE Indian College University Ratings. Both of them emphasised the need for Indian higher educational institutions to be at par with their international counterparts and also invest in strategies, vision, and infrastructure to ensure they break into globally recognised international rankings.
Prof. Kumar said, “Global rankings have emerged as a dominant way of measuring their performance. Today, there is a serious debate on the need for Indian universities to be in the top 200 universities of the world and the urgency of seeking reforms that will pave way for promoting excellence in higher education and research.
“It is important that Indian universities embrace the international rankings framework as well as international accreditation processes, which will benchmark Indian universities with the world class universities in many countries,” he added. He said that the Times Higher Education World Universities Rankings, QS World University Rankings, and the Shanghai Jiatong Rankings have become part of the institutional aspirations for many universities and higher education institutions in India.
Mr Fernandes said, “In the next decade, international ranking systems will influence the quality assurance and accountability with more government policies focusing on quality assurance systems and academic standards. Due to the simplicity of their representation of evidence and sophisticated validation measures, these exhaustive quantitative methodologies will be accepted as reliable measures in redefining the overall quality and accountability in higher education.”