Led by IISc, 17 Indian universities among top 200 universities in Asia

Representative image (Source: Pexels)

Led by the Indian Institutes of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, 17 Indian universities have found a place among the top 200 varsities in Asia but among the top five from the country, three have dropped ranks in 2022 against 2021.

While IISc was placed at 42nd position in Asia, Karnataka-based privately run JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research was placed at 65th position and IIT Ropar was ranked 68 this year as against 55 last year, Times Higher Education (THE) Asia University Rankings 2022 showed on June 1.

THE, a global education ranking agency based out of the UK, said India is the third most represented country in Asia with 71 institutions getting ranked just behind China (97) and Japan (118). Overall, 631 universities were ranked from 31 countries and regions in Asia.

“India is the third most-represented country, with 71 institutions, up from 63 last year. Indian Institute of Science makes the top 50, at 42nd place. A further three are in the top 100 as the JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research makes its debut in 65th place. There are 17 Indian universities in the top 200, down from 18 last year,” THE said in an email.

THE rankings take into account several parameters including faculty-student ratio, industry connection, research citation, internationalisation of campuses, among several other parameters in preparing its various rankings.

However, India’s most talked and elite seven older IITs including IIT-Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, and IIT Madras did not participate in THE rankings for the third year in a row as they demanded more transparency from the ranking agency.

Phil Baty, chief knowledge officer at THE said the Asia University Rankings aim to “provide a closer focus on the Asian context” and are based on the “comprehensive, balanced and rigorous set of performance indicators available, with 13 separate metrics used to assess research-intensive universities”.

“Once again, this new dataset shows the extraordinarily diverse range of excellence across the Asian continent – with 31 Asian nations/regions making the list, and with successes in all corners of the continent. The data demonstrate that Asia is perhaps the most exciting and most dynamic continent for higher education, research, and innovation in the world today,” Baty said in an email note.

In India, several institutions made visible progress in their performance in this year's Asia Rankings. For example, Jawaharlal Nehru University was ranked 167 in Asia this year as against 187 in 2021. Jamia Millia Islamia was ranked 160 this time climbing 20 positions from last year’s rankings. Alagappa University which was not ranked in 2021 has made a debut at 122nd position and the Indian Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad with the rank of 174, too, made its debut in the top 200 rankings.

Similarly, Delhi Technology University which was placed in the 201-250 ranking cohort, was ranked 149 this year, and Saveetha University was ranked 131 this year as against the 401+ ranking band last year. But several dropped their rankings too. For example, Panjab University dropped 22 places in 2022 against last year to be placed at 197 rank in Asia.

Asian Peers:

Japan is the most-represented nation in the ranking for the seventh consecutive year (in 2016, it was joint top with the Chinese Mainland), with 118 institutions, up from 116 last year. The University of Tokyo retains a sixth place. There are eight Japanese universities featured in the top 100.

China has cemented its position as Asia’s top-performing higher education system, THE said. It added that mainland China has taken the top two spots in the ranking for the third consecutive year, and 30 places in the top 100, the same as last year. Twenty two of these 30 top 100 institutions have risen or stayed stable compared with last year. Overall, there are 97 mainland Chinese universities in the ranking, up from 91 last year.

Taiwan has 40 universities in the ranking, up from 38 last year, and Thailand has 17 universities in the ranking. At least 21 Pakistani universities, too, were ranked this year, up from 16 last year.