India striking out on university rankings is becoming rather old news. So, it comes as no surprise that Indian universities don’t figure in the top-200 of the Times Higher Education list of the global best. But this time, to India’s shame, its varsities have actually dropped in rankings. Panjab University, India’s best as per the list, dropped from the 226-250 band of ranks in 2013-2014 to the 276-300 band in 2014-2015, where it is joined by Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, which makes its debut in the list. The second- and third-best Indian varsities, IIT-Mumbai and IIT-Roorkee, place well beyond the top 350.
It is true that the parameters of ranking for such lists often lead to Indian universities missing out—Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University, for example, fails to make it to the list because it doesn’t have undergraduate courses in most of its schools. Therefore, there is a need for an evaluation system for that takes into account such gaps—
IIT-Madras, as per a report, is in the process of developing one. But given India aspires to the status of a global power, it must meet global standards in education. The QS/Times-type rankings reflect how far we are from that. For over a third of the country’s population, school and university education are age-appropriate priorities. Thus, the government will have to address higher education concerns urgently. One way to institutionalise global standards would be to get foreign universities to set up campuses in India. But considering the Foreign Educational Institutions Bill has been hanging fire since 2011 (the Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha but has now lapsed), there is little hope of this happening soon. Till the time we have an UK/US university with an Indian campus, the efforts have to be directed at making our best, better.
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