QS World University Rankings 2023

In News

• Recently, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings (WUR) were released.

Key Findings

• Global: 
  • The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was declared the best university for the 11th straight year. 
  • The second place went to the University of Cambridge, followed by Stanford University. China has 28 universities among the top 500, including six in the top 100 with Peking University getting rank 12 and Tsinghua University placed 14th.
• India:
  • Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru has emerged as the highest ranked Indian institute in the 2023 edition of the QS World University rankings, IIT-Bombay is at second position, followed by IIT-Delhi.
    • They are the only other Indian institutes in the global league of top 200, in continuation of a trend since 2017. 
    • The total number of Indian institutes among the top 1,000 globally has risen to 27 from 22.
  • Apart from IISc, eight IITs (Delhi, Bombay, Madras, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Roorkee, Guwahati, Indore) are ranked among the top 500 globally. No other Indian university, public or private, has found a place in this category, five years into the launch of the Institute of Eminence scheme.
  • According to the CpF indicator of Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), IISc Bengaluru is the world’s top research university, achieving a perfect score of 100/100 for this metric. 

Image Courtesy: IE 

About QS Rankings

• The QS World University Rankings is an annual publication of university rankings which comprises the global overall and subject rankings (which name the world’s top universities for the study of 51 different subjects 
• It is the most-widely read university rankings in the world.
• It currently leads the higher education industry with consistent innovation and growth, progressively affecting the way students and institutions engage. 
• The QS rankings provide methodical evaluations of key areas of higher education institutions, ultimately offering potential students expert advice proven to align students with their chosen path.
• Parameters are:
  • Academic Reputation (AR), 
  • Employer Reputation (ER), 
  • Faculty-Student Ratio (FSR), 
  • Citations Per Faculty (CPF), 
  • International Faculty Ratio
  • International Students Ratio.

Challenges for Higher Education in India

• Gap between the Supply and demand: In higher education, India has a low rate of enrolment i.e. gross enrolment ratio (GER), at only 26.3%. 
• Inadequate Student-Faculty Ratio: In most of the state and central universities more than 30% of faculty positions are lying vacant. While the student enrolment in higher education is growing at a faster rate in the last few years. 
• Inadequate Infrastructure and Facilities: Apart from the highly recognized higher educational institutes (HEIs) in India, many institutes are running without proper infrastructure, high-end research facilities and basic facilities like library, hostels, transport, sports facility etc. which is desirable to rank the quality institution.
• Outdated Curriculum: Indian higher education is facing the problem of poor quality of curriculum. In most of the higher educational institutes curriculum is out-dated and irrelevant.
• Lack of Quality Research work: There is no shortage of funding for the top Indian Institutions such as IITs, IIMs and other institutes of national importance. Due to the limited focus on Research and Internationalisation, very few Indian higher educational institutes are globally recognized. 
• Less Research Papers: The number of Research papers published in India has increased continuously for the past few decades but is reflected in low citation impact if compared with other countries like Germany, United States, France and China. 
• Low employability: Only a small proportion of Indian graduates are considered employable. Placement outcomes also drop significantly as we move away from the top institutes. Presently there is very little collaboration of higher educational institutes with industries.

Way Ahead

• The Prime Minister of India has declared the decade 2010-20 as the ‘Decade of Innovation’, to unleash the creative potential of every Indian. 
• Thus, ideally, all higher education institutions (HEIs) should have a comprehensive and functional mechanism to convert research into innovations.
• To improve the higher education system, there is a need to improve teaching pedagogy, build synergies between research and teaching, facilitate alliance of higher institutions among themselves, research centres and industries. 

Source: IE