As many as 65 Indian universities and institutes from India, led by the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, are among the top 2000 globally but the country is losing its competitiveness in higher education on the international stage, according to the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR).
In the 2024 edition of the Global 2000 list by the CWUR, 32 Indian institutions moved up the ladder, while 33 saw a fall.
IIM-A, the country’s top institute stood at 410th rank globally, as compared to 419 last year. It was followed by the Indian Institute of Science (501) and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (568).
The rankings are based on the analysis of 62 million outcome-based data points on four factors: quality of education, employability, quality of faculty, and research.
Out of the top 10 institutes in India, seven saw a fall in their rankings.
This included IISc (494 to 501), IIT-Bombay (554 to 568), IIT-Madras (570 to 582), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (580 to 606), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (607 to 616), Delhi University (621 to 622), and Panjab University (759 to 823).
The institutes which saw an improvement in the rankings were the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (721 to 704) and the Academy of Scientific & Innovative Research (866 to 798).
“It is clear that India’s standing in education is under increasing pressure following the rise of higher education systems from around the world,” said Nadim Mahassen, President of the Center for World University Rankings, said.
“While India’s global share in scientific research grew by 24 per cent in the last five years, this has not translated to comparable success in higher education,” he said.
The situation, however, is similar in other countries as well. The US, despite claiming eight of the top ten places globally, is struggling to maintain its dominance against rivals worldwide.
In the Global 2000, only 90 US institutions improved from last year, with 23 maintaining their spots, and 216 falling down the standings.
In the United Kingdom, only 28 universities improved from last year, with seven maintaining their spots, and 57 falling down the standings.
Germany has 69 institutions in the table this year, led by the University of Munich at number 46. But it also saw an overall drop in the rankings, with 55 universities declining.
In China, however, 95 per cent of universities ranked better than last year, led by Tsinghua University at number 43.
“China’s remarkable rise is due to heavy investment in research and development, and recruitment of talented researchers in classified areas, such as semiconductors, from the US and elsewhere through the Qiming program,” said Mahassen.
“With Chinese universities challenging their Western counterparts, American and European institutions cannot afford to be complacent,” he added.
In Asia, the University of Tokyo was the highest-ranked institution, at 13th spot globally.
Globally, Harvard emerged as the top university for the thirteenth year in a row. It was followed by two other private US institutions, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford. The UK’s Cambridge and Oxford ranked fourth and fifth. Interestingly, these two were the world’s top public higher education institutions.
The rest of the global top ten were held by private US universities: Princeton, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Yale, and Caltech.
For India, Mahassen added, “Without additional government investment in education as well as research, India’s institutions face the possibility of declining in the future.”
First Published: May 13 2024 | 12:25 PM IST