Global University Rankings and India

Note:

The inspiration for this post is this op-ed by Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthy, the Director of IIT-Madras. A big thank you to the folks at Nanopolitan from where I learnt of this op-ed. 

If you have been following this blog, you would know that I have often written about the environment and the state of Indian universities, especially the State Universities. This post is in the later category. To say that the standard of higher education in India is abysmal and it is a direct reflection of the quality of our universities. And this fact is highlighted every year in the global university rankings published by such agencies as Times Higher Education. None of our universities figure in the top 200 or so rankings. Those that usually make it to high-200 ranks or later are institutes like the IISc and IITs, which are specialised institutions for research and training in Science and Technology. They do not really qualify as universities in the traditional sense. One response of those that are responsible for administering the higher education in India has generally been to rubbish these rankings, like Prof. Ramamurthy has done in the above op-ed. I am among those who take these rankings seriously. Admittedly, these ranking systems are not perfect, use metrics that are geared towards Western universities and don't take the specific social and economic settings in which our universities have to operate. Nonetheless, no one can have a doubt the universities that are ranked in the top 10 in any year are indeed top of the heap. Despite our peculiar social and economic conditions, it is indeed possible for Indian institutions to achieve internationally competitive quality standards. Success of our atomic and space programs and international standing of institutions like ISRO is a testament to this. Even some of our educational institutions like the IISc, IIM and IIT systems are well regarded in the world in their specialized domains. But these institutions are too few and very specialized to be able to lift the overall quality of our higher education system. And it would be unfair to compare them to centuries old, extremely well endowed, completely autonomous institutions like the Harvard or the Stanford that have well established research and teaching programs in diverse areas of science, technology and humanities. Nevertheless, those standards are not impossible to achieve provided we have the vision and the determination to remain dedicated to that dream. Our present Prime Minister's ascent to the highest administrative position in the country when every card in the deck was stacked against him is a testament to this. Hope his HRD minister has the same commitment to lift the Indian higher education to standards that rest of the world would hope to emulate. To get there we could probably start by reforming our universities and inject some professionalism into their functioning, starting with the appointment of Vice-Chancellors. As the news items in the following links will show, a lot of our university vice-chancellors are a disgrace to that office. 

1. Recently, Tamil Nadu high court cancelled the appointment of Madurai Kamaraj University Vice-Chancellor. 
2. The Vice-Chancellor of MG University in Kerala was sacked because he fudged his CV
3. Kerala Govt. recently admitted in the assembly that Vice-Chancellors of three other universities in the state did not have the requisite qualifications to hold that office. Note the brazen attitude of the state government in stating that the UGC prescribed qualifications are not mandatory.
4. Another news item on the same issue, this one with comments from some of the VCs.
5. This link highlights the non-serious attitude of the HRD ministry towards an important decision such as the appointment of VCs to Central Universities which were established the promise of raising Indian higher ed to international standards.  
6. Tavleen Singh has written an op-ed today urging the HRD minister to liberalize the higher ed sector and liberate it from the clutches of bureaucracy.