The almost non-stop bursting of crackers at Panjab University's sprawling 550-acre campus in Chandigarh indicated that Diwali arrived last week itself for the institution's students and teachers. The festive spirit was more than justified; after all, being ranked as the top Indian university in global rankings is no mean achievement - even though many suggested that the crackers deserve to be spared, given the fact that more than half the teaching posts in the university and in its 188 affiliated colleges remain vacant, and their budgets are under severe stress. Still, this significant achievement by one of India's oldest universities apart, the recent global university rankings of Quacquarelli Symonds and Times Higher Education suggest two other things. First, not a single educational institution in India figures anywhere in the top-200 list; and, second, their ranks have fallen compared to last year. Even more distressing is the response from some of the directors of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Instead of examining why the IITs are so low in the rankings, they have questioned the rankings' credibility - by claiming that the rankings are linked to an institute's paying power and its willingness to buy advertisements and consultancy projects from those who run the ranking business, a charge that has been vehemently denied. Certainly, the high weights - as much as 50 per cent - for "reputation" in the rankings could bias them against the developing world's educational institutes. But the outbursts betray, above all, a head-in-the-sand approach in the IITs. Human Resource Development Minister M M Pallam Raju's assertion that the IITs need to get off their high horse and let the world know what they are doing is welcome.
This is important, since just 21 Indian institutions participated in the Times rankings. Reportedly, even Panjab University only did so at the urging of its notable alumni, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. For a country that added 5,000 new students and 10 new institutions every single day over the last five years, this is too low a level of participation. The IITs have also failed to persuade their undergraduates into careers in research, as a result of which their academic quality has suffered. The best IIT undergraduate students start work immediately, or do an MBA, or a PhD abroad. The IITs get their Masters and PhD students from other engineering colleges - students who are looking for an IIT stamp but are not always well prepared for the rigours of research. It's time all IITs paid serious attention to recommendations that they boost research - such as by setting up incubation parks within campuses, or choosing specific focus areas for each IIT, which could then become world-class.
But the government also has a role to play. Reputations can only be built if the institutes are aggressive in showcasing their work. Similarly, citations can be attracted only when people know about and are willing to recognise your work. All these mean global acceptance and require serious investment. The government has also limited the marketing ability of these institutions by severely restricting international students and professors in the IITs. This gravely undermines the Indian universities' efforts to improve their rating in global evaluation. That's food for thought for Mr Pallam Raju as well.
