The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2018, released on September 5, 2017, revealed that the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, while remaining the top university in India, slid to the 251-300 grouping. This was a decline from its previous position in the 201-250 cohort.

Key Points

• IISc’s Position: IISc Bangalore was placed in the 251-300 groupings of the best universities.
• Other Indian Institutes: IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, and IIT Kharagpur also featured in the rankings but at much lower positions.
• Reasons for Decline: The decline was attributed to drops in IISc’s research influence score and research income.
• Global Competition: Leading universities in other Asian territories such as China, Hong Kong, and Singapore have been consistently rising in the rankings due to high and sustained levels of funding.

Future Prospects

The editorial director of global rankings at THE, Phil Baty, mentioned that Indian universities performed poorly on internationalization, which measures how successful a school is in attracting foreign students and staff. However, there is optimism that the rankings may improve in the near future as Indian schools work on improving the internationalization aspect.