The Asian countries particularly China and South Korea have used their higher education to change course of their economies with China going from cheap manufacturing to a high tech economy and South Korea transforming from a rural economy to a developed economy on strength of higher education alignment to economic development goals. “That understanding and ambition is missing here in India though the government is increasingly realizing quality of higher education is important. But linkages to industry are still missing,” says Phil Baty, Editorial Director, Times Higher Education (THE), the publisher of THE world university rankings.
Speaking at a seminar in New Delhi today hosted by International Institute of Higher Education Research and Capacity Building of OP Jindal Global University , Baty recalled his first encounter with government way back in 2014 when the then HRD minister told him that India doesn’t care about rankings. “Now that perception is changing, India has recognized the problem and now officials are more open to agreeing on data is vital to comparative study of the working of universities and bettering quality,” he added.
THE thinks there are about 200 universities in India which meet at least one of THE world university rankings parameter. At present THE is working with 42 HEIs in India and the number is likely to go to 72 next year. The WUR is available for 2500 universities globally though only 1100 rankings are published. This too may go up by 200 to 1300. Teaching, research, citations, international look and industry income are the chief parameters used by THE rankings.
