With eight Indian universities in Top 100 and total 16 in the top 200 South Asian universities list, Indian has recorded its best ever performance in the Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2016, announced on Monday.
Bengaluru's Indian Institute of Science (IISc), is among the top 30 Asian universities registered at 27th place in the list. It’s the first time that an Indian institute has been featured in the top 30 pack.
The newly expanded list, which had featured only top 100 universities in its ranking till 2015, recorded the success of Singapore Universities at top position for the first time, with China and Japan having the highest number of top institutions.
The other Indian universities in the top half of the ranking include the Indian Institutes of Technology in Bombay (43rd), Kharagpur (51st), Delhi (60th), Madras (62nd), Roorkee (65th), and Guwahati (joint 80th) and Jadavpur University in joint 84th place.
Eight of the listed universities have jumped 10 positions from its previous rankings, whereas IIT Guwahati and Jadavpur University, which were not in the top 100 list last year came in at 80 and 84.
Phil Baty, editor, THE rankings, said, "India has made great gains in this list in recent years - just three institutions appeared in the top 100 in 2013 - but the nation still has a long way to go to compete with Asia's leading university nations, such as China, Japan and South Korea, and scores particularly weakly on internationalization."
The expansion of list has allowed greater number of South Asian institutions to be recognized on the international platform. While India is celebrating being the only country in the region with representatives in the top 100 (eight) and 16 universities overall, its neighbors Pakistan and Bangladesh have also shown their presence with three institutions in the bottom half of the table.
Institutions from 22 countries, including Bangladesh, Indonesia and Qatar, are represented for the first time in the list. The THE Asia University Rankings use 13 performance parameters to reflect the attributes of Asia’s higher education systems.
South Asian universities traditionally lag behind on international growth parameters, as compared to their eastern counterparts. Bad infrastructure, improper supply of basic amenities and absence of government funding has been the root cause of holding back the growth of South Asian education sector. Whereas China, North-Korea and Singapore has been successful in attaining world class status with continuous economic growth.
