The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has made it to the top 10 of Times Higher Education's (THE) Best Small Universities in the World ranking for 2017. IISc is the only Indian university to have made it to the list.
Small universities are defined by having fewer than 5,000 students and teach and research across more than four disciplines.
The latest ranking by THE is in its second year where the list is topped by California Institute of Technology (Caltech), followed by France's École Normale Supérieure.
Seeta Bhardwa, student editor at Times Higher Education, highlights that small universities provide high student satisfaction and good working relationships between students and their professors.
"Many students are drawn to smaller class sizes, higher teacher to student ratios and a community-like feel that a small university can provide," said Bhardwa.
Apart from Caltech, French and Italian universities took three places respectively in the top 10, none of which have more than 3,000 students.
The other two French universities in the top 10 include École Polytechnique at fourth position and École Normale Supérieure de Lyon at seventh in the ranking. Italy’s three in the top 10 are Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa in fifth place, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in sixth and Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, tenth.
The ranking found that students from small universities preferred a more close-knit learning environment.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology in third place, the Indian Institute of Science, eighth, and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, ninth, complete the top 10.