Page 68 - EducationWorld May 2022

Cover Story

INDIA’S MOST ADMIRED

GOVERNMENT UNIVERSITIES

In EWIHER 2022-23, government universities are ranked
in nine separate categories — multidisciplinary, law and
humanities, natural and life sciences (including medical),
engineering and technology, all-women, agriculture etc. This
segregation eliminates apples with oranges type comparisons

Summiya Yasmeen

ndia’s public higher education system comprises 16 government (and private) universities according to their
deemed-to-be, 54 Central and 444 state government domain specialisation. Therefore in EWIHER 2022-23,
universities. Among them, 16 elite government varsi- government universities are ranked in nine separate
Ities conferred deemed university status for teaching categories — multidisciplinary, law and humanities,
and research excellence by the Delhi-based University natural and life sciences (including medical), engineering
Grants Commission (UGC) are top-ranked followed by and technology, all-women, agriculture, physical sciences
well-funded Central universities and good, bad and ugly and sports, maths and research. This segregation
state government universities. Together, these 624 public eliminates apples with oranges type comparisons and
universities educate over 32 percent of India’s 37.4 mil- makes it easier for school-leaving students and graduates
lion students in higher education. to select universities best suited to their aptitude and
Though over the past quinquennium, the country’s academic aspirations.
new genre private universities — which have multiplied To conduct the EW India Government University
from 276 in 2015-16 to 403 in 2021-22 — are giving stiff Rankings 2022-23, the highly-reputed Delhi-based
competition to the once highly prized public universi- market research and opinion polls company Centre for
ties, the latter continue to dominate the Indian higher Forecasting & Research Pvt. Ltd (C fore, estb.2000)
education ecosystem. Especially given that the 444 state interviewed 4,105 sample respondents comprising 2,236
government universities affiliate over 40,000 undergrad- faculty, 1,047 final year students of 163 universities, and
uate colleges countrywide, prescribing their academic 882 industry representatives in 25 cities countrywide.
syllabuses, sanctioning new study programmes, conduct- These respondents were persuaded to award public
ing examinations and awarding degrees. Moreover, with universities of whom they have sufficient knowledge,
government institutions offering highly subsidised higher scores of 1-300 on ten parameters of higher education ex-
education, they are more affordable and preferred over cellence, viz, faculty competence, faculty welfare develop-
relatively pricey private universities by the great majority ment, research and innovation, curriculum and peda-
of the country’s 260 million households. gogy (digital readiness), industry interface, placements,
Although the annual EducationWorld India Higher infrastructure, internationalism, leadership/governance
Education Rankings (EWIHER) initiated in 2013, were and range and diversity of study programmes. Higher
initially restricted to assessing private universities, in weightage is given to the critical parameters of faculty
2020 separate league tables rating and ranking the competence (150), research and innovation (300) and
country’s best reputed Central and state varsities were infrastructure (150).
introduced. This year, in keeping with our commitment EWIHER ranks 161 government universities in nine
to continuously improve and refine the EWIHER, categories with the multidisciplinary institutions league
we have further sub-divided the broad category of table being the most competitive and populous.

68 EDUCATIONWORLD MAY 2022