Bharat SainiLast Updated on July 13, 2017 by Bharat Saini
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) of USA tops the rankings for the sixth year running in the 14th edition of the QS World University Rankings ranking over 950 universities from 84 different countries. MIT is closely followed by Stanford, Harvard and the California Institute of Technology, three other US universities at 2nd, 3rd & 4th ranks respectively. Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru has achieved the highest ever ranking for an Indian university in one of the important parameters in the 2018 rankings and has been ranked number 6 among 959 universities in the QS World University Rankings for Citations per Faculty by scoring a perfect 100, it was ranked number 11 in the world in 2017 & 2015 with a score of 99.9 each year and number 18 in 2016 with a score of 99.3. However, IISc lost its position as India’s top ranking university in the QS World University Rankings, falling to an overall rank of 190 in 2018 and an overall score of 49, from an overall rank of 152 in 2017 with a 53.8 score, and a rank of 147 in 2016 with a 62 score. IIT-Delhi has replaced IISc at the top, rising to a rank of 172 in 2018 ranking from 185 in the 2017 rankings, with an overall score of 50.7. IIT-Bombay has been ranked 179 up from 219 in 2017 with a score of 49.7. For the first time Delhi University (DU) has entered the top 500 group and has been ranked among the top ten varsities in the country.
Top 10 universities in the world as per the QS World University Rankings 2018 are:
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in US
- Stanford University in US
- Harvard University in US
- California Institute of Technology University (Caltech) in US
- University of Cambridge in UK
- University of Oxford in UK
- UCL – University College London in UK
- Imperial College London in UK
- University of Chicago in US
- ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland
Comparison of 2018 rankings with earlier rankings reveals that there is no change at the top and no new entrants in the global top 10. Top 4 universities are all based in the US and UK universities continue to slide down the rankings, with 51 of 76 of them falling at least one place. There are other exciting developments in the rankings with six Chinese universities featuring in the top 100 for the first time and Russian universities making big advances have benefited from increased government funding and a concerted attempt to improve student mobility.
Top 10 Universities in India as per the QS World University Rankings 2018 are:
Global Rank Institution
172 IIT Delhi
179 IIT Bombay
190 IISc Bangalore
264 IIT Madras
293 IIT Kanpur
308 IIT Kharagpur
431-440* IIT Roorkee
481-490 Delhi University
501-550 IIT Guwahati
601-650 Jadavpur University
- After 400 individual ranks, QS puts institution under groups
Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) is a British company specialising in education and study abroad. The company was founded in 1990 by Nunzio Quacquarelli and Matt Symonds. It offers publications and events to broaden the scope of study abroad. Published annually, the QS World University Rankings provide an index of the world’s leading higher education institutions, based on the following six performance indicators and their weight age:
- Academic Reputation 40%
- Employer Reputation 10%
- Faculty/Student Ratio 20%
- Citations per faculty 20%
- International Faculty Ratio 5%
- International Student Ratio 5%
Although there are critical opinions on the weightage in QS rankings yet featuring of three Indian Institutions among the top 200 is appreciable. Indian higher education is deficient and to attain global standards the country needs to cover a huge ground, starting from primary education, to become a knowledge society. Education needs higher budgetary allocations supplemented by the private sector funding for research at our institutions of higher learning and we need more institutes of global standards.
