3 Indian institutions among QS world subject rankings

The sixth edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject, released on March 22 on TopUniversities.com, features a record-breaking 42 disciplines, making it the largest-ever ranking of its kind.

The expert opinion of 76,798 academics and 44,426 employers informed the results, alongside the analysis of 28.5 million research papers and over 113 million citations.

Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) continue to take the lion’s share of top places, leading in 24 subjects between them. Each takes 12 leading positions.

The highest rank by an Indian university is achieved by the University of Delhi, whose development studies department remains in the top 20, despite dropping from 17th to 18th this year.

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) is the country’s strongest university at the subject level, featuring in 14 different subject tables. It is therefore the most successful of 21 Indian universities ranked in the subject tables for at least one subject.

DU’s development studies course is one of three Indian top50 placements. Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) rises into the top 50 for engineering – electrical and electronic (45), while Indian Institute of Science Bangalore ranks 47th for materials science.

“This edition of the World University Rankings by Subject sees an improved performance by Indian institutions. In 2015, there was only one within the top 50 (University of Delhi, development studies, 17th) whereas this year, there are three. The number of placements in the band 51-100 has risen to 25 (24 in 2015). India is, unsurprisingly, particularly strong in technology and the natural sciences,” says a QS Ranking spokesperson.

Considering the metrics QS uses, India struggles with the international indicators (inter- national students and international faculty) as well as with the faculty/student ratio indicator.

“When it comes to the research indicator, citation per faculty, the IITs and the Indian Institute of Science perform well while the rest of ranked Indian institutions struggle to make an impact. IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi do well in the employer reputation indicator, ranking 83rd and 104th globally respectively, and IIT Bombay is also the best performing for academic reputation (173rd globally). All in all, while Indian universities are becoming more visible on the global arena, there is still room for improvement across the board,” adds the spokesperson.

The 21 different Indian universities ranked by QS this year occupy 114 places between them, a real terms increase from 107 in 2015.