Five Institutes of Technology (IITs) are in the top 20 in the world’s first dedicated ranking of universities in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group of countries. China’s universities dominated the table with 40 universities featured in the top 100, 22 in the top 50 and 4 in the top 5 with Tsinghua University being ranked the best university. According to the “QS University Rankings: BRICS” to be announced on Tuesday, Russia has 19 of its universities in the top 100, Brazil 17, India 16 and South Africa 8 in the list. IIT-Delhi takes the top ranking (13) among Indian universities followed by IIT-Mumbai (15), IIT-Madras (16), IIT-Kanpur (17) and IIT-Kharagpur (18). There is then a huge gap on that merit list when it comes to Indian entries. The next rank for an Indian university is once again IIT-Rourkee (34) and IIT-Guwahati (51). University of Calcutta is ranked 52nd best in BRICS followed by University of Delhi at 53. University of Mumbai is ranked 62, University of Hyderabad 64, University of Madras 70, Benaras Hindu University 85, IIT-Allahabad 92, University of Pune 94 with Manipal University taking the 100th spot. Zoya Zaitseva, project director for QS University Rankings said, “It is not surprising that China leads, given the size of its economy and population and the massive resources it has been putting into higher education. As with the QS World University Rankings, this BRICS ranking points to a sharp contrast between Indian and Chinese achievement in higher education. Despite being only marginally smaller in population, India has only 16 institutions listed here, less than half China’s. While India has world-class institutions in science and technology, its comprehensive universities are not as strong in an international context.” The QS World University Rankings published recently also featured 11 Indian institutions in the top 800 with the highest ranking going to IIT-Delhi which was placed 222 in the list. Two other institutions made it to the top 300 — IIT-Bombay (233) and IIT-Kanpur (295). IIT-Madras was ranked 313 while IIT-Kharagpur stood at 346. India scored just 2.4 when it came to International faculty in its colleges while the average global count was 38.1 in 2013. When it came to international students, India’s points were miserably low – at 3.1 as against an average global score of 37.9. As far as faculty student ratio was concerned, India got 29.4 points as against the global average of nearly 45. The BRICS ranking is the first of its kind to apply a dedicated methodology especially designed to place the featured nations on a more equal footing. The results are made up of respondents from over 9,800 academics from the nations. Zoya Zaitseva added, “BRICS countries are focusing on developing world-class universities as a strategic priority to sustain the growth of their economies by producing innovation, cutting- edge research and highly qualified and employable graduates. This first ranking reflects the relative strengths of each of these ambitious nations while also highlighting the potential for growth.” QS’ recent world’s 200 top list had shown that not a single Indian university figured in the world’s top 200 list. Source: Education News