World university rankings

Updated on: Monday, October 12, 2009

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has entered the world’s top 400 according to the 2009 Times Higher Education - QS World University Rankings, which were released last week. The new addition takes the number of Indian higher education institutes in the top 400 to six.

In another case of upward mobility, IIT Bombay has climbed up from a position of 174 in 2008 to 163 in 2009. However, IIT Delhi has gone down from its 154th place in 2008 to 181 in 2009.

The subject rankings also recognise the strengths of some universities that do not appear in the top 200 overall. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), for example, appears in the subject ranking for the arts and humanities.

Although India is represented in the top 200, only by the IITs in Mumbai and Delhi, mainland China now has six universities in the overall ranking, as well as five from Hong Kong.

There are other success stories in Asia, where universities have been on an upward curve. The continent has nine universities in the top 50, while the Japanese universities of Nagoya and Tohoku, and the National Taiwan University have all broken into the top 100.

According to Jan Figel, European Union’s education commissioner, Asian universities — particularly those in China and India — are expected to eventually dominate the rankings unless Europe matches their investment. In fact, in September 2009, the European Union warned that India and China are likely to become the world’s leading research powers by 2025. The rankings suggest that these, and other Asian nations, are already building university systems to support this transition.

Timesofindia

World university rankings

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