DU, JNU, Jamia slip in QS World University Rankings

This is while the number of Indian institutes in the top 1,000 has globally increased from 22 to 27, and institutes such as the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), IIT-Bombay and IIT-Delhi feature in the top 200 and have risen in the ranks.

Of the three major central universities in Delhi, DU remains the highest ranked. However, it has slipped from 501-510 band in 2022 to 521-530 in 2023. This continues the university’s consistent fall in rankings since 2020 when it was ranked 474. In the four cycles since then, DU has been ranked below 500.

While most Indian universities have low scores for the parameters ‘international faculty ratio’ and ‘international students’ ratio’, the other parameter in which DU has scored very low is ‘faculty student ratio’ in which it has scored 4.5 out of a possible 100.

After IISc and the top IITs, DU is ranked 10th nationally but it lags behind even far lower-ranked universities on this point- University of Hyderabad’s score is 17.8, Aligarh Muslim University’s is 24.5 and Savitribai Phule Pune University’s score is 64.6.

The HRD Ministry’s Institutes of Eminence policy requires them to work towards a faculty-student ratio of 1:10. As of February this year, there were 4,276 ad-hoc teachers employed across DU colleges and they make up a majority of the teaching strength of the university. On the other hand, DU scores high, with 92 points, in ‘Employment Outcomes’ and 70.8 in ‘International Research Network’.

JNU has slipped from 561-570 in 2022 to 601-50 in 2023 while Jamia Millia Islamia has slipped from band 751-800 to 801-1,000.

Apart from international students and teachers’ ratios, all three universities also score low on ‘citations per faculty’: DU scores 27.2, JNU scores 19.7 and Jamia scores 15.4.

While DU Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh could not be reached for comment, university PRO Anoop Lather said, “We have undoubtedly gone down in the rankings, but we will cover the deficiencies over time through teacher recruitment and other measures. We are reviewing the parameters and analysing what we need to work towards.”

A statement from Jamia read: “We find that there is greater scope for improvement in international faculty and international student ratio. These two parameters, however, are not purely in our purview, and are also linked to policy decisions at the government level.”

It further said, “There are few areas where we find it difficult to evaluate our performance due to the lack of adequate transparency in some parameters of the assessment process adopted by the agency. We feel a better understanding of the ranking process will not only help us know our position in the ranking universe but also act as feedback for further improvement.”

Among institutes in Delhi, IIT-D is ranked the highest at 174, up from 2022’s 185.

“The rightful place for an institution such as IIT-Delhi is however among the top 50. We will reach there soon, provided we do a few things right… 50% of weightage in these rankings is for perception, which is a totally subjective metric. Who you ask decides where you are ranked. We need to improve our perception… Our top institutions going global and developing an international footprint is the fastest and most sure way to reach our rightful place in these world rankings,” said former IIT-Delhi director V Ramgopal Rao.