Page 32 - EW June 2021 Low Res

Cover Story

EW INDIA HIGHER EDUCATION RANKINGS 2021-22

TOP 300

UNIVERSITIES

The separate private and public universities league tables
will aid and enable school and college leavers to select
higher education institutions best in sync with their budgets,
aptitudes and aspirations

Dilip Thakore

P OST-INDEPENDENCE INDIA’S higher versity is ranked in the Top 200. India’s showpiece IISc,

In the THE 2021 league table, not even one Indian uni-
education system tightly regulated by
Bengaluru is ranked in the 301-50 range. On the other hand
the Central and state governments has
the THE Top 200 league table includes seven PRC univer-
proved to be a big disappointment.
Although some of the country’s uni-
sities with Tsinghua ranked #20 and Peking University at
versities are of more than 150 years
India’s higher education system which includes 39,931 un-
vintage — Bombay, Calcutta and Ma-
dras universities were established in #23. Quite clearly, in the global race of academic excellence,
dergrad colleges, 10,725 standalone institutions and 979
1857 — until very recently, none of India’s 979 universities universities with an aggregate enrolment of 37 million
has ever been ranked among the Top 200 WUR (World youth, is an embarrassing also-ran.
University Rankings) league tables published annually by The prime cause of this embarrassing status is that
the globally respected London-based higher ed rating agen- the country’s higher education institutions (HEIs) rigidly
cies Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) and Times Higher Educa- controlled by the Delhi-based University Grants Commis-
tion (THE). sion (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education
In the latest WUR 2021 published by QS, the only In- (AICTE) are over-regulated, allowing them little elbow
dian universities ranked among the Top 200 are the IIT- room for autonomy and innovation. UGC licenses and
Bombay (estb.1958) ranked #172, followed by the Indian heavily subsidises all 54 Central government universities,
Institute of Science, Bengaluru (estb. 1909) at #185 and provides ad hoc grants to state government universities
IIT-Delhi (estb.1961) #193. Humiliatingly, seven varsities and prescribes the syllabuses of all arts, science and com-
of the neighbouring People’s Republic of China (PRC) are merce HEIs countrywide. AICTE licences all engineering
ranked among the QS Top 200 with four in the Top 50. and technical HEIs across the country including B-schools

32 EDUCATIONWORLD JUNE 2021