QS Rankings: Which Universities Climbed Or Slipped, And Why

Published annually by global higher education consultancy Quacquarelli Symonds, the QS list ranks the world’s top 1,000 universities. Besides overall global rankings, it also gives subject rankings in 48 different subjects and five composite faculty areas, as well as for graduate employability and various other aspects. 

23 Number of Indian universities in world top 1,000. There were 24 in last year’s rankings. University of Hyderabad and Amity University drop out, while O P Jindal Global University is a new entrant. Out of the 23, nine are in the top 500, including seven IITs.

12 Average decline in global ranks for Indian universities. QS attributes it to two main criteria: Faculty/Student Ratio and International Student Ratio. In the Faculty/Student Ratio indicator, which measures teaching capacity, only eight out of 23 feature among the top 500.

37.18 Average citations impact of research produced by Indian universities, measured as citations per faculty member over 5 years. This marks a 30% improvement from 28.54 but is still behind the global average of 50.31

184 IIT Bombay’s world rank for the Citations per Faculty indicator. IIT Bombay faculty’s research impact ranks above the global average.

100/100 IISc Bangalore score in Citations per Faculty metric. It is the world’s second-best score for research impact, adjusted for faculty size. IISc is the first Indian institution to see its research cited more than 100,000 times in a five-year period. An IISc faculty member produces research that is cited 261 times in a five- year period — 5 times the global average.

3 IISc Bangalore rank this year, down one place. It has been overtaken by IIT Delhi this year. QS attributed IISc’s drop to “a weakening performance in the Academic Reputation indicator, which incorporates expert insights of 94,000 academics across the world”.

(Source: IndianExpress Education)