HOW UNIVERSITIES WERE RANKED
The India Today Group’s Best Universities Survey, 2018, was conducted by New Delhi-based research agency Marketing and Development Research Associates (MDRA) between November 2017 and May 2018. Nearly 100 universities across four streams— general, technical, medical and law—participated in the survey. Only those universities offering full time, in-classroom courses and have churned out at least three passout batches till academic year 2017-18 were considered. They were ranked on the basis of the postgraduate courses offered.
For objective ranking, MDRA has carefully chosen more than 120 attributes to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons of universities. These performance indicators were clubbed into five broad parameters—reputation and governance, academic and research excellence, infrastructure and living experience, personality and leadership development, and career progression and placement. The evaluation was based on current year data provided by the universities.
The ranking was done by the following steps
1. More than 700 universities fulfilling all the criteria were shortlisted
2. Experts with rich experience in their fields were consulted to frame the parameters and subparameters pertinent to the respective categories of universities. Indicators critical for establishing best universities were meticulously determined and their relative weight finalised
3. Comprehensive objective questionnaires were designed for each category of university and sent to all eligible universities. Nearly 100 universities provided their data along with voluminous supporting documents within the stipulated deadline
4. After receipt of the objective data from universities, cross-checking of the information provided by participating universities was done carefully through available information and validation (scrutiny of supporting documents, past data, mandatory disclosure, telephonic check, asking confirmation through e-mails and website visits). In case of insufficient/ incorrect data, respective universities were asked to provide complete, correct and updated information
5. In several cases, physical audits (verification) were conducted to verify the objective data provided by the universities. Corrections were made wherever required
6. Perceptual survey was carried out among 318 well-informed respondents (23 V-Cs/ Pro-V-Cs, 96 directors/ deans/ registrars, 199 sr faculty/ HoDs) across 23 cities
North: Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Meerut, Dehradun, Lucknow, Jodhpur, Jaipur and Ludhiana
West: Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Indore
South: Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Coimbatore
East: Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati and Patna
National and zonal rankings were taken from these experts in their respective field of experience and were given 75 per cent and 25 per cent weightages respectively. They also rated the universities on a 10-point rating scale on each of the five key parameters
7. While computing objective scores, it was ensured that aggregate data alone is not used and hence data was normalised on the basis of number of students. The total scores arrived from objective and perceptual survey were added in the ratio of 50:50 to get the total combined score