The top management of the Delhi-based market research company C fore constituted a sample database of 5,689 academics, final year university students and industry managers to rate and rank Indias Top 200 universities across seven parameters of academic excellence Dilip Thakore

The Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru (aka Bangalore) is Indias top-ranked university followed by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai and Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, according to an inaugural nationwide poll-cum-study commissioned by EducationWorld, and conducted by the well-known Delhi-based market research and opinion polling company, Centre for Forecasting and Research Pvt. Ltd (C fore, estb.2000).

For over four months after the C fore top management constituted a sample database of 5,689 well-informed individuals including 2,567 academics, 1,835 final year students in 187 universities and 1,287 managers in Indian industry, 124 C fore field personnel asked them to rate and rank the countrys Top 200 universities across seven parameters of academic excellence — competence of faculty, faculty welfare and development, research and innovation, pedagogic systems and processes, industry interface/experiential learning, placements and infrastructure and facilities. Some parameters viz competence of faculty (150), research and innovation (300) and infrastructure (150) have been given higher weight. Moreover, unlike the annual EducationWorld-C fore India School Rankings which are purely perceptual, in this survey considerable weightage is given (under the research and innovation parameter) to academic papers included in the globally-respected Thomson Reuters Web of Science and Elseviers Scopus listings.

The rating and ranking league tables are based on measurable objective data and perceptions. The objective data, i.e publications and citations in refereed journals was obtained from secondary sources. Simultaneously, a perceptual survey was conducted among important stakeholders of the higher education system, viz, faculty members, final year students and leaders and managers of industry. The respondents were asked to rate the universities they are familiar with on seven parameters given differing weights, says Premchand Palety, promoter-director of C fore whose lengthening clients list includes Hindustan Times, CNBC TV18 and Mint.

Within the 400-acre campus of the Indian Institute of Science , Bangalore (IISc, estb.1909), promoted through a generous land grant by pioneer industrialist J.N. Tata who founded the Mumbai-based Tata business empire (estimated annual revenue: Rs.652,304 crore), the top ranking the institute has been awarded in the inaugural EW India University Rankings 2015, has generated little excitement. Countrywide, theres general acceptance — certainly within the institutes faculty — that IISc stands head and shoulders above all others because the annual research output of its 400-strong faculty cited in refereed journals is greater than the next five universities combined. Although its ranked a modest 222 and 276-300 in the latest World University Rankings league tables (2014-15) of the authoritative London-based Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) and Times Higher Education (THE) journal, until 2012 when it used to publish its own league tables of world universities, The Financial Times, London used to routinely include IISc within its list of Top 20 global research universities.

We are pleased to learn that IISc has been ranked Indias #1 university in your survey. However far from being complacent about our ranking, we are constantly striving to improve our national and international standing, is the cryptic response — communicated in writing after much coaxing — of Dr. Govind Rangarajan, an alumnus of BITS-Pilani and University of Maryland, USA, professor of mathematics and authorised spokesperson of IISc.

With research and innovation given the highest weightage (300 out of 1,000) among the seven parameters based on which the 5,869 knowledgeable sample respondents of this survey have rated and ranked Indias Top 200 universities, its hardly surprising that Indias second-ranked university is another Tata Group-inspired higher education institution — the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) whose 260-strong faculty have published 3,539 papers in internationally refereed journals over the past five years. Currently a deemed university under the Union governments department of atomic energy, the institute awards Masters and doctorate degrees, and its 415 students and 260 faculty conduct research in physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and computer science at its four campuses in Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.

Although TIFR is not a typical university, but essentially a research, institute focused on postgraduate science teaching and research, we are very pleased that your respondents have ranked us among Indias top universities. Our students are made to engage in research from the time they join, and TIFR should be classified as a research university where students are exposed to the best in their specialisations while being provided high quality teaching by faculty which is also actively involved in cutting edge research. Though the criteria used to rank are not the most appropriate for us, the heavy weightage given to the parameter of research and innovation is responsible for our high ranking, says Dr. Sandip Trivedi, physics alum of IIT-Kanpur and Caltech, USA and former research associate at Princeton University and Caltech who signed up with TIFR in 1999, and was appointed director of the institute in March.

The top two essentially research universities are followed by the more conventional Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU, estb. 1969) which offers science, technology, biotech and liberal arts postgraduate education through its 10 schools and four special study centres to 7,300 students mentored by 500 faculty. Sited on a 1,000 acre green campus in Delhi, over the past 42 years since it was established inter alia to teach scientific socialism and provide accessibility to students from weaker sections of society, JNU has acquired a formidable reputation as a bastion of left-of-centre intellectual and political prescriptions. Prominent alumni include Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretaries Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury, Ali Zeidan, president of Libya, Ahmed bin Saif Al Naihyan, chairman of Etihad Airways and psephologist Yogendra Yadav, hitherto secretary of the Aam Aadmi Party, among others.

Dr. Sudhir Kumar Sopory, a biology/botany alumnus of Jammu & Kashmir and Delhi universities with valuable teaching/research experience in Germany, the US and Delhi University prior to signing up with JNU in 1973 of which he was appointed vice chancellor in 2011, is satisfied with the ranking awarded to JNU by the sample respondents of the inaugural EW India University Rankings. Standing behind two excellent institutions of higher education and research, I feel a sense of achievement for JNU, says Sopory. Right from the beginning since JNU was established, weve had a very open culture which encourages liberal discussion of all subjects and topics everywhere and anywhere. The outcome of this open culture is that JNU students and alumni tend to be broad minded, have greater depth of knowledge and vision reaching beyond academics. Which is just as well because JNU receives an annual Central government grant of Rs.250 crore, i.e a subsidy of Rs.3.50 lakh per student.

Unlike the majority of Indian academics who are scornful about Indian and foreign (QS, THE) university rankings, Sopory believes that comparative league tables are a useful signalling mechanism for students, faculty and institutional managements. However, none of the World University Rankings (WUR) or even Indian league tables give any weightage to the parameters of inclusiveness and accessibility which are our major mandates. Nevertheless, theres no doubt Indian universities — JNU included — need to produce more humanities and social sciences research papers which are of sufficiently high quality to be included in internationally accepted, refereed journals, says Sopory.

Likewise theres overall satisfaction with the transparency of the inaugural EW India University Rankings 2015 in Panjab University, Chandigarh (PU, estb. 1882) which took Indian academia and the cognoscenti by surprise when it was adjudged Indias #1 university and awarded a #276-300 ranking in the Times Higher Education WUR 2013-14.

Sited on a 550-hectare campus designed by French architect Pierre Jeanerette in Chandigarh (pop.1.2 million), by common consensus Indias most well-planned and designed city, PU has 15,000 students enroled in its 78 teaching and research departments and 15 specialised centres. We are fairly satisfied with the #5 ranking awarded to Panjab University in the composite all-India league table. However its important to note that as a university almost wholly funded by the Central government, we are obliged to meet its inclusion and subsidisation norms which are not given any weightage in the EducationWorld or any foreign rating agencys evaluation methodology. Nevertheless we believe that fairly conducted university rating and ranking exercises serve a useful purpose inasmuch as they inform us about our strengths and weaknesses so that we strive towards continuous improvement, says Dr. L.K. Bansal, a finance alum of PU who signed up with his alma mater in 1976. Currently, Bansal heads PUs research and finance faculty and is the designated spokesperson on matters related to assessment of the varsity by Indian and external ranking agencies.

Be that as it may, although in terms of enrolment, study programmes and the administrative load they shoulder, Indias top-ranked universities have an impressive record, theres no denying that academically they have considerable catching up to do. Although India boasts one of the contemporary worlds largest higher education systems with 693 universities and 35,000 affiliated colleges — with the premier presidency universities of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras chartered in 1857 and Delhi University in 1922 — hosting an aggregate 20 million students, none of them are ranked in the Top 200 World University Rankings league tables of the globally respected London-based Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) or Times Higher Education (THE).

The top-ranked Indian higher education institutions in the latest (2015-16) QS and THE global league tables are the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (#222) and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (#276-300) respectively.

This is particularly galling because three Chinese universities and three Korean varsities are ranked among the Top 100 of QS. In the THE World University Rankings 2014-15, three Chinese, four Korean and four Turkish varsities are ranked among the Top 200. Even Malaysia, a late starter in higher education, has one of its varsities in the Top 200 in the THE league tables while the top-ranked Indian institution is IISc (#276-300).

Indias universities are in a state of decay. Its difficult to find Indian universities even at the level of class B or C universities in the US, let alone comparable to the best. For example, none of the IITs is remotely comparable to MIT, Boston, and we havent been able to nurture world-class institutes like UCLA, Berkeley, Harvard or Cambridge. Its high time we — the academy and government — make a determined effort to develop 20-25 higher education institutions which are as good as any in the world. This will require huge investment, not only in terms of money but of mental effort. Dedication and doggedness within scientists, teachers, administrators and government is necessary. I hope this will happen, says Dr. C.N.R Rao, post-independence Indias most eminent solid state and structural chemistry scientist, who has authored over 1,500 research papers and 45 scientific books and has been awarded honorary doctorates from 60 universities worldwide. In 2013, Dr. Rao was conferred the Bharat Ratna, Indias highest civilian award, and currently serves as chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council to the prime minister and is professor emeritus of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore (estb. 1989).

Quite clearly, its crunch time for the Indian academy. Deep-rooted reforms focused on radically improving learning outcomes and research and innovation, are urgently required if the countrys 693 universities are to make a meaningful contribution to the growth and development of the Indian economy. While its politically correct to stress the importance of inclusivity and universal subsidisation of higher education, its not rocket science to understand that these socio-economic objectives are inimical to academic excellence and financial autonomy which makes the academy excessively dependent upon government patronage with all its attendant evils. Therefore its time a handful of top-ranked universities with the potential to qualify for inclusion in the Top 100 of QS and THE World University Rankings league tables are exempted from fulfilling the social obligation of reserving quotas for scheduled castes, tribes and other backward classes, and transformed into purely merit-based institutions.

Moreover, with students tuition fees contributing barely 2-3 percent of the income of undergrad colleges and universities (cf. the global norm of 20 percent), its important for the Central and state governments to replace the system of universal subsidisation of higher education — under which a billionaires heir pays the same tuition fee as a cobblers offspring — with a system of targeted subsidies. Students from non-poor households should be obliged to pay the actual cost of education provision, and college/ university managements should be encouraged to build institutional endowment corpuses from alumni and corporate donations which would increase financial autonomy and enable discretionary spending.

Indias universities are confronted with a real and complex challenge to expand capacity and improve quality simultaneously.

In the circumstances, it would be advisable for the government to follow the China and Russia example of encouraging a small slice of top-ranked universities to conform with the metrics of international rating and ranking agencies in which theres heavy emphasis on research excellence. Such a dual approach would enable a small number of universities to set global benchmarks for other universities which could continue to give priority to meeting socio-economic objectives, advises Phil Baty, a history alum of Kings College, London and editor of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings since 2010.

An excellent and workable suggestion. But it requires urgent action from leaders of Indian academia who unfortunately seem to be steeped in oriental inertia, and from all-controlling ministers and bureaucrats in government blind to the obvious connection between education excellence and national development.

To read India’s Top Universities National league table 2015 visit:https://www.educationworld.in/rank-national_university/2015.html