Courses from 3 IITs, IISc are in global top 50

MUMBAI: Four Indian universities,
including the IITs at Delhi and Mumbai, are
among the global top 50 in at least one of
the 30 disciplines covered under the QS
World University Rankings by Subject.
IIT-Delhi achieved the country's highest
position, ranking 42nd in electrical
engineering. IIT-Bombay was 49th in
electrical engineering and 50th in civil
engineering, IIT-Madras 49th in civil
engineering and the Indian Institute of
Science 46th in materials science.
No course from Indian universities figure in
areas such as arts, humanities and social
sciences. IIT-Bombay is the only one in the
top 200 in any of the five arts and
humanities disciplines, ranking in the
151-200 grouping for linguistics.
The five life sciences disciplines feature only
two Indian institutions, while India draws a
blank in six of the eight social sciences
disciplines. The exceptions are statistics, in
which five Indian institutions— IIT-D, IIT-
Kharagpur, IIT-Kanpur, Indian Statistical
Institute and IIT-B — feature, and politics,
in which Jawaharlal Nehru University
appears in the 101-150 grouping.
All round, IIT-B emerges as the top
institution with four of its courses making
it to the rankings.
"The IITs continue to perform well in their
specialist areas and the inclusion of three of
them in the global top 50 in the engineering
disciplines shows that they are starting to
achieve genuine international renown,"
said QS head of research Ben Sowter.
On the other hand, the lack of world-
renowned Indian programmes in arts,
humanities and social sciences continues to
be a concern, Sowter said. "The absence of
Indian universities from the top 200 in
subjects such as medicine, law, economics,
accounting and finance underlines the
difficulty India faces in reversing the tide of
talented students leaving the country to
study these disciplines abroad," he added.
"The latest QS rankings highlight the
excellence of the specialist Indian
institutions in the STEM (science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics)
area and also identifies the need to improve
the global competitiveness of our
universities, in particular the large and
comprehensive institutions," said Mohandas
Pai, chairman, ICAA — Indian Centre for
Assessment & Accreditation.
Image
The encouraging performance of the IITs in
engineering and technology fits into a
pattern of strong performances by Asian
institutions in the STEM disciplines. Asia
accounts for 10 of the top 30 institutes in
chemical, civil and electrical engineering,
and eight in mechanical engineering,
showing that several institutions in the
region can now be considered serious global
players.
National University of Singapore makes the
global top 10 in all five engineering and
technology disciplines, while Hong Kong
accounts for three of the top 20 institutions
for computer science: the Hong Kong
University of Science & Technology (11th),
the University of Hong Kong (14th), and
Chinese University of Hong Kong (18th).
"The STEM disciplines have been the
primary focus of global competition over
the past decade as institutions in countries
such as Singapore, Hong Kong, China and
Korea have emerged as genuine competitors
to the traditional research powerhouses in
the US and UK," said Sowter.
Globally, Harvard remains the best all-
round institution, ranking first in 11 of the
30 disciplines, two more than its local rival
MIT.