IITs excel in research but down in QS subject rankings

Despite excellence in research and academics, India’s Indian Institutes of Technology are continuing their slide down global rankings, the QS World University Ranking by Subject, 2018, has revealed.

Released recently by global higher education analysts Quacquarelli Symonds, the rankings of the world’s top universities for the study of 48 different subjects indicate that India’s IITs are ranked 80 times across the 48 subject tables. Their ranks have, however, dropped 25 times and improved just five times.

All of it was not bad news though. Delhi University again achieved India’s highest position, ranking 17 for development studies.

IIT Roorkee emerged as India’s strongest research institution as eight of its departments achieved an average citations per faculty (CPF) score of 80.9 out of 100. This was better than the average of the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore – its 12 ranked departments scored 79.09 out of 100 for CPF.

However, pointing to an overall ‘regressive’ trend, the QS rankings said Indian universities were ranked in the top 50 of a subject table on three occasions this year, one fewer than in 2017. The institutes had achieved 20 top 100 ranks, four fewer than last year.

In total, 25 Indian institutions were ranked 142 times overall – nine times fewer than in 2017.

India also had two of the world’s top 50 schools for the study of mining engineering. The Indian School of Mines ranked 29th, while Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, was at number 40. Both institutions, however, had dropped five places year-on-year.

Three Indian universities featured in the top 100 for QS’s electrical and electronic engineering table.

When it came to citations per faculty, which enables QS to measure a department’s research impact, the sore achieved by India’s ten ranked electrical engineering departments was 83.37, indicating “particular research strength in the area,” the report said.