Fattyacids
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This week China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University released its influential ranking of tertiary institutions across the globe, naming the top 500 higher educational institutions. US universities, as is their wont, dominated the show, sweeping as many as 182 slots in the best five hundred. 8 of the top 10 universities are in the US, with Harvard named as world's best higher institution with a score of 100. Second spot is claimed by Stanford University, followed by University of California and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The only non-US institutions in best 10 are UK's Cambridge and Oxford.
Britain now has 37 universities in the top 500. Canada's tally stands at 23, and Germany has notched up 38 slots. However, there is no Asian University in the top 20. Last year, Japan's University of Tokyo was among the best 20 but Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich ousted its Japanese counterpart to enter the top 20 club this year. Overall, there are 20 Japanese higher institutions which found a place in ARWU's ranking of 2013. China, on the other hand, has 28 tertiary academies in top 500, Taiwan has 9. Hong Kong has 5 universities, followed by Singapore with 2 universities in best 500. Malaysia and India have one university each in the table.
However, Nineteen Australian Universities have made it to top 500, with five of them entering the best 100 as well. Melbourne has retained its place as Australia's best University. Glyn Davis, vice-chancellor of University of Melbourne, told the press that "Melbourne's performance in individual subjects and overall reflects the hard work and high quality of the research team."
Now talking of the performance of our own Indian universities one is bound to feel disappointed, and there are plenty of reasons to be worried. The most glaring and troublesome fact is that not even a single Indian higher institution could get a place in top 100 list; the only institution to book a slot in the rankings is Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science(IISc) that was ranked in the 301-400 category. That only one Indian higher educational institution made it to ARWU's ranking speaks volume about the dilapidated state in which our education system is in.
Poor research, minimal publication of articles, absence of quality teaching and educational infrastructure are some of the prominent factors which are responsible for deteriorating education levels in Indian universities. No wonder given such hurdles Indian higher education institutions find themselves hobbling on global academic platform. Not only are we constantly faltering - while our neighbors are making rapid and giant strides of improvement in education and learning - our government has done little to boost the quality of education in Indian universities.
"It is true that the number of tertiary institutions have grown exponentially in India, but there is little doubt that quality of education has been horribly compromised in most of these academic houses," pointed out Lalit Kumar, a PhD scholar at Delhi University. He further added, "Such a huge country like ours has just one institution in top 500. We seriously need to think where we are going with our educational level, especially when a tiny country like South Korea has as many as 11 institutions in the 2013 rankings."
Another factor that has been the undoing of our academic institutions is the blatant and rampant practice of rote-learning not just at primary or secondary levels but very much at higher levels, too. What is extremely upsetting here is that such an environment of learning renders our student incompetent to compete on the global scale, especially because they lack adequate skills and are ill-equipped to survive in the cut-throat competition. It goes without saying that unless government makes it its priority to revamp the educational infrastructure in the country, we are likely to come across dismal performance by Indian universities.
By Saral Sharrma
Academic Ranking of World Universities 2013 released: A dismal show by India - CoolAge
I hear a lot of mambo jumbo about India's IIT, but they are not even ranked in the top 300 in the world. Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) by Shanghai Jiao Tong University is known to be more objective and consistent compared to the other two UK based rankings.
Care to shed some light?
