No Indian university in THE’s top 300 list     

Since 2012, this is the first time that not a single university appears in the World University Rankings 2020, Top 300 list, published by Times Higher Education (THE). IISc Bangalore, which usually leads and was just in the 251-300 bracket last year, has dropped down by 50 ranks and is in the 301-350 cohort this time.

“India has a huge amount of potential in global higher education, given its rapidly growing youth population and economy and use of English-language instruction. However, it is disappointing to see the country fall out of the top 300 of the rankings this year, with only a small number of institutions registering progress. The Indian government has strong ambitions to boost the global standing of its top universities and attract foreign students, academics and research collaboration. It now needs to back up these aspirations with high levels of investment – or risk declining further amid increasing global competition, especially from other parts of Asia," Ellie Bothwell, THE rankings editor, said in an email, reported Livemint.

She also said that the fall in the rankings was mostly due to a decrease in the research citation impact score. Although most universities have done really well in the citation impact score, most of them have not been so well faring. According to Livemint, IITs including those in Mumbai and Delhi have done well primarily because of their high score in research citations. While IIT Ropar has got 100 in the research citation parameter, IIT Indore scored 77— much better than IISc and older IITs.

The new entries from India are placed in the 501-600 group. The Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai and IIT Gandhi Nagar were not ranked earlier. Similarly, the Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University was for the first time ranked in the 601-800 group.

According to a survey, Indian institutions are mainly not able to improve their international outlook, as per Livemint, a prickly issue for the higher education sector in the country despite its ambition to become a study-abroad destination for low income and developing countries.