While MIT in US still holds rank as the world’s best for the fifth consecutive year, India’s premier institutes slipped further down the ladder in the QS World University Rankings 2016-17.
IISc Bangalore dropped out of the top 150 to be ranked at 152nd this year, down from 147 last year. Among the six IITs, IIT Delhi was ranked at 185 place for 2016-17, against 179 last year, IIT Bombay at 219 (against 202 last year), IIT Kanpur 302 (271), IIT Kharagpur 313 (286), IIT Roorkee 399 (391) and IIT Guwahati in the 481-490 band, against 451-460 band last year. IIT Madras, however, improved by five places to break into the global top 250 universities.
Ben Sowter, head of research at the QS Intelligence Unit, attributed Indian institutions’ dismal performance to factors such as low numbers of PhD-qualified researchers and low international faculty ratio, among others.
