World University Rankings: First time since 2012, no Indian institution in top 300 varsities

Read | IISc Bangalore rank slips, IIT-Ropar better than Bombay, Delhi: World University Rankings 2020

“The Indian government has strong ambitions to boost the global standing of its top universities and attract foreign students, academics and research collaboration. It now needs to back up these aspirations with high levels of investment — or risk declining further amid increasing global competition, especially from other parts of Asia,” Ellie Bothwell, Times Higher Education rankings editor, was quoted as saying in the release.

Even as India dropped out of the top 300, it increased its representation in the rankings from 49 universities last year to 56 this time. “As a result, India holds on to its place as the fifth most-represented nation in the world and the third most-represented in Asia (behind Japan and mainland China). It has eight more universities than Germany, which is sixth in the country ranking, but 25 fewer than China,” the release stated.

Read | Improve research culture, investment for better ranking: Times Higher Education to Indian institutes

Among those that made their debut in World University Rankings are IIT-Ropar, Institute of Chemical Technology, IIT-Gandhinagar, IIT-Patna, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Anna University, Banasthali University, Delhi Technological University, University of Mumbai and Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan.

According to Times Higher Education, “The best Indian institutions are generally characterised by relatively strong scores for teaching environment and industry income, but perform poorly when it comes to international outlook in comparison to both regional and international counterparts.”

Oxford University continues to lead the rankings table followed by California Institute of Technology and University of Cambridge. Stanford University and MIT complete the top five table.