Seven IITs boycott THE world rankings after IIT Bombay’s tiff with them

• Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) refused to be a part of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings.
  
• This includes IIT’s seven campuses — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Roorkee and Guwahati.
  
• This is because these older IITs are unsure of the parameters and transparency in the ranking process.
  
• The development comes after the clashes between THE and IIT Bombay when their international rank slipped further.
  
• The university rankings featured only six Indian universities in the top 500. In fact, none of them made it to the top 300 universities list.

India’s premier engineering institutions — Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) refused to be a part of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings.

This includes IIT’s seven campuses — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Roorkee and Guwahati. The older IITs are unsure of the parameters and transparency in the process.

“Leading IITs i.e. IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras and IIT Roorkee have decided to not participate in any of the Times Higher Education (THE) - World University Rankings this year," the IITs said in a joint statement.

However, they said that the decision would be reconsidered next year, provided the higher education ranking publication is able to reassure the institutions in India on their ranking procedure.

The development comes after the clashes between THE and IIT Bombay when their international rank slipped further. IIT Bombay argued that the institute had not given any data for the evaluation, the last data they gave to THE for university rankings was for 2017. THE however said that they received the data.

The university rankings featured only six Indian universities in the top 500. In fact, none of them made it to the top 300 universities list. This had happened for the first time in the last seven years — despite an increase in the number of Indian institutions featuring on the list.

IIT Delhi’s director too said that they are making a significant contribution to the innovation system in the country.

“If Delhi NCR has the highest number of tech startups/unicorns in India, IIT Delhi has played a role in it. If 14 of the 24 unicorns created by Indians are by the alumni of one single institution — IIT Delhi, then it is surely doing something right,” V Ramgopal Rao, director at IIT Delhi said last year when the rankings came in.

However, THE believes that the government needs to spend more on its educational institutions.

“The Indian government has strong ambitions to boost the global standing of its top universities and attract foreign students, academics and research collaboration. It needs to back them up with high levels of investment and increasing global competition,” THE rankings editor Ellie Bothwell had said.

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