IISc makes Indian debut in top 100 world university ranking

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore broke India's poor ranking spell by making a debut in the world's top 100 universities for engineering and technology. IISc made its entry at 99th spot in a list that remains dominated by US institutions with Stanford, CalTech and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the top three positions in the 'Times Higher Education (THE) Ranking for Engineering & Technology'. "This year's stand out success story has to be India, making its debut in this prestigious engineering and technology ranking, which represents the top few per cent of world universities for these subject disciplines. "Whether you look at high tech sectors such as IT or aerospace engineering or more traditional fields such as steelmaking, India's engineering and technology prowess is highly visible the world over in the shape of companies based in India or run by people born in India, such as Google and Microsoft, Infosys and Wipro or Tata and Mittal," said Phil Baty, Times Higher Education World University Rankings editor. THE has singled out the year as one of Asian progress, with the US holding 31 positions - down from 34 last year - while Asia holds 25 positions in the Top 100, up from 18 last year. Asian universities occupied six positions in the Top 30 this year, with Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan and India all improving their representation, while Singapore and Hong Kong maintained theirs. "While the US and UK still dominate the upper echelons of this table, Asia is shifting the balance of power, proving that its institutions are world-class in this field. "Asia's success mounts serious pressure on universities in North America and Europe, which will have to run fast just to stand still in this table," Baty said. "Like our flagship World University Rankings, the Times Higher Education ranking for engineering and technology subjects applies rigorous standards, using tough global benchmarks across all of a global research university's key missions - teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook," he added. PTI