Fall in QS World University Rankings: A Concern for IIT-Delhi
Even though the Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi scored well on academic reputation, it lost marks on international students and faculty.
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi secured 185th place in Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings. Last year, the institute bagged 179th position but this year it slipped six spots in the rankings. Even though the institute scored well on academic reputation, it lost marks on international students and faculty.
There are six indicators for the rankings:-
- Student-faculty ratio
- Employer reputation
- International faculty
- Academic reputation
- Citations for faculty
- International student ratio
Deputy Director of IIT-Delhi, Mr. Balakrishnan said that the institute had scored less in the rankings because of less number of international students, faculty and requisite infrastructure. He mentioned that around 40% of weightage in the ranking is given to perception of the institute, infrastructure and campus.
He also mentioned that apart from the perception, the institutes are judged on their strength of international students, academic reputation and faculty. He pointed that lack of scholarships awarded to international students is also one of the reasons for the poor rankings. He cited the example of US National Science Foundation which funds the foreign nationals to undertake research on its soil.
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He further added that external agencies or respective countries are financing all the 80 international students who are pursuing various courses in IIT-Delhi. He stated that the initiatives which the HRD Ministry are going to undertake would probably improve the Global rankings in the coming years.
He expressed his concern that most of the IITs are facing challenges in hiring international faculty. These institutes could not afford to pay high salaries to international faculty. He said that the IITs are unable to fill the existing vacancies with Indian faculty, and on the other hand there were many challenges in recruiting international faculty. One of the professors of IIT-Delhi stated that most of the students of foreign countries prefer to pursue studies in developed countries rather than developing countries.
IIT-Delhi which has the highest teacher-student ratio of 1:18 alone needs 300 teachers. Currently, there are 2,600 faculty posts that are vacant in all the IITs across the country.