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HomeIndiaEducationUpset IITs complain about Times rankings, HRD ministry says improve yourselves first

Upset IITs complain about Times rankings, HRD ministry says improve yourselves first

No Indian institute has made it to top 200 in Times Higher Education rankings, and older IITs like Delhi and Bombay have been beaten by newcomers.

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New Delhi: The dismal rankings of Indian institutes in the Times Higher Education (THE) world rankings, a list to qualify educational excellence, have upset some IITs, who are planning to approach the government to officially complain against the authorities that compile the list.

The older IITs, which have seen their ranks drop by several notches since last year, have already informally communicated their disappointment to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), ThePrint has learnt.

A senior ministry official, however, told this reporter that the institutes ought to improve themselves first instead of complaining.

“We have not received an official complaint from the IITs so far. And even when we do, we do not plan to take it up with THE,” the official added.

Released by the London-based THE magazine, the rankings take into account 13 parameters that “measure an institution’s performance across teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook”. While the first 200 institutes are individually ranked, the others are placed in brackets, for example, 251-300 and 401-500.

While no Indian institute has made it to the top 200, some of the most prominent names in higher education have found themselves bested by newcomers in the later rankings.

For example, IIT-Ropar is ranked alongside the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in the 301-350 bracket, which signifies a fall for the latter since last year, when it fell in the 251-300 group.

Meanwhile, IIT-Indore (351-400) is ahead of its older counterparts like IIT-Bombay, IIT-Delhi and IIT-Kharagpur (401-500).


Also read: IITs get new brief from Modi govt — work on indigenous defence technology


‘Unfair rankings’

The older IITs are disappointed with the way they have been ranked and have labelled the methods “unfair”.

“If you look at the way institutes have been ranked, there has to be some correlation. Some unheard of institutions were ranked better than older IITs last year and that made us think of the authenticity of these rankings,” said an IIT-Delhi professor who deals with ranking data.

“Either we have not been able to figure out how these rankings work or they have not made their methodology clear to us,” the professor added.

The professor said the institute had been thinking of taking up the matter with THE since last year, and had unofficially communicated their disappointment to them.

IIT-Delhi director Ramagopal Rao said the methodology was unclear and non-transparent.

A senior professor at another older IIT said, “We have our faith in QS rankings (another education survey), but THE rankings have become highly questionable.”

The ministry, however, believes the institutes needed to introspect.

“The older institutes have lost out in the rankings because of the per-teacher productivity method that THE follows. Suppose you have 100 publications and 10 teachers, the per-teacher productivity is 10… If an institute has 500 publications and 250 teachers, the per-teacher productivity then becomes two, which is where the older IITs are falling behind,” a senior official in the HRD ministry said.

“What the institutions need to do is look at the parameters and improve themselves,” the official added.

The official said every ranking system had its own methodology and they cannot compel them to change it.

“This metric of per-teacher productivity that THE follows is after certain discussions with experts, this is something that QS does not follow and we cannot ask them to change the methodology,” he added.


Also read: 2,400 students dropped out of IITs in 2 years, nearly half were SC, ST, OBC


This report has been corrected to reflect that IITs have so far only informally communicated with the HRD ministry and are planning to approach the government with a formal complaint later.

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13 COMMENTS

  1. I was expecting the same. My application is considered in Germany, Denmark and UK in good institution like DFG, Cambridge but not IIT in for faculty position as well as for research. Even they don’t response. It seems professionalism ended. If they are not considering application atleast they should write the reason of rejection. Even they don’t give acknowledgement too. I am happy to see the ranking atleast now they will open their eyes and hire high qualified and skilled professionals. Only politics are in all indian institution. Thatswhy I settled in abroad. Atleast I was not expecting from IIT and IISC.

  2. Wow. Happy to see so many people comment after doing an indepth research on facts. It is sad that some idiots are working in the IITs instead of these smart people commenting here in a shitty post.

    Did you know that you have something known as subject ranking? For a moment can you check how do several institutes perform on different metrics, like in each subject? Oh and I really do not feel the goal of IIT is to get better in things like painting. What I want to point out is, their goal is to carry out research in other disciplines.

  3. IITs & IIMs are autonomous institutes but still lagging behind and are no match to global standard , which is evident in this world ranking.Time is ripe enough to interospect and act rather than being in cheap reactions.

  4. Sadly our institutions r not improving:we only boasts of our tough entrance tests to get into these institutes resulting into nothing.It is high time the credentials of the teachers evaluated/revisited after a fixed period of time and unworthy ones shown the doors.Then only could we excel.

  5. It is high time that the inefficiency of these IITs be dealt with deftly. The habit of not working hard that not only ails those who man these colleges but also the otherwise well groomed coaching products that enter is costing them now. Tax payers hard earned money is being pumped here and still if the IITs continue with business as usual without producing any tangible results, we should either shut them or privatise them. Tax payer should not bear the burn of inefficient staff and demotivated students.

  6. Ranking of international repute definitely create global impact about the organisation. Any denials can’t compensate the real facts , Indian education system has drastically down fall besides the top-notch institution, university have more pathetic conditions,most of the professor stop doing research or for the sake of increment only . Government fund are utilized for hypocrisy n groupisam.I know few organisations who never submitted even a clouser reports of funded goi projects and still getting projects in Car.. If new IIT s are coming up means a new bridged of young scientists are putting efforts as compare to others.

  7. May be to rank the IITs THE should conduct a JEE style entrance exam exclusively for IITs and ask their directors or chairmen BoGs to appear for this exam. The result from this exam should declared as the rank. IITs can fool the country as much as they want but they can’t change international perception.

  8. Why there is so much rivalry among our own institutions.Why older iits are not able to digest the progress of others? Why they think that they are the only winners everywhere.This reflects their mean Indian mentality.Why don’t they question the other 300 universities which are on top.Only question about ropar and indore!!Infrastructure of older ones is crumbling and are struggling with quality and quantity of teachers…Go and visit these new colleges and compare but don’t count on top ranker students because its the only thing which you can boast on.

  9. Why there is so much rivalry among our own institutions.Why older iits are not able to digest the progress of others? Why they think that they are the only winners everywhere.This reflects their mean Indian mentality.Why don’t they question the other 300 universities which are on top.Only question about ropar and indore!!Infrastructure of older ones is crumbling and are struggling with quality and quantity of teachers…Go and visit these new colleges and compare but don’t count on top ranker students because its the only thing which you can boast on.

  10. Yes the rankings are showing the true colors of Indian institutes and the petty politics prevailing here. When you have enslaved fools masquerades as academicians this is what will happen to education in this nation. Govt cannot go and bribe THE to award no 1 position to GIO institute. THIS IS EXPOSING our institutions of Eminence AS joke .

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