University Rankings: Significance, Pitfalls and Implications for India

University Rankings: Significance, Pitfalls and Implications for India – Presentation to be Held on Sunday January 4 at the 102nd Indian Science Cong

MUMBAI, January 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -

India''s universities and research institutions account for 10% in the THE Top 100 University Rankings for BRICS Countries and Other Emerging Economies (2015), but did not make the cut for the Top 10. Why not?

In THE Top 100 University Rankings for BRICS Countries and Other Emerging Economies (2015), India's top institutes only rank 25 or higher. Research based on SciVal*, presented at the 2015 ISC, shows that Indian institutes would benefit significantly from stronger collaborations, either internationally or between academia and industry.

Some key findings include:
Academic - corporate collaborations are shown to have a very strong, positive influence on citation impact: 5 x for IIS, 3-12 x for IITs, and 14 x for India overall.
Impact of international collaboration is very positive: 1.5-4 FWCI for the highest ranked institute, IIS (ranks #25), with a significant jump in citation impact for collaborations with Cambridge (x2), UC Berkeley and Harvard (x3), Ohio State (x4).
Panjab University, is the highest ranked Indian university (ranks #39), benefitting strongly from its international collaboration in high-energy physics.
For international articles from India, esp. India-EU and India-US there is steady growth: 50% in 5 years, and doubling forIndia-China but from low level.

Overall conclusion by Dr. Michiel Kolman, SVP Global Academic Relations Elsevier; "Collaboration (international or corporate-university) can significantly boost India's research performance and will impact rankings positively. Leading science nations, such as US, China and EU have strong high-impact collaboration potential for India."

Why are university rankings important? What variables influence university rankings? On which of these variables do Indian universities and research institutes perform well? On which points should they focus on to boost their overall position in the rankings next year?

During his presentation Dr. Kolman will zoom into the BRICS ranking results, using research data from Scopus to further analyse the research performance of Indian universities and research institutions. He would provide valuable insights on publication output, impact, the influence of international and corporate collaboration, patents, and compare results to universities from other BRICS countries.

Presentation details

Indian Science Congress, University of Mumbai, 3-7 January 2015

Presentation: University Rankings: Significance, Pitfalls and Implications for India

Presentation date: Sunday January 4, 9:15 am, Green Technology Auditorium (GT-001)

By: Dr. Michiel Kolman, SVP Global Academic Relations, Elsevier

Current standing of Indian research institutions in THE BRICS and Emerging Economies Ranking (2015)

Rank 25: Indian Institute of Science: Score 37.6

Rank 37: Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay: Score 33.3

Rank 38: Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee: Score 33

Rank 39: Panjab University: Score 32.9

Rank 43: Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur: Score 31.6

Rank 44: Indian Institute of Technology, Madras: Score 31.5

Rank 56: Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi: Score 29

Rank 71: Jawaharlal Nehru University: Score 25.9

Rank 74: Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur: Score 25.8

Rank 78: Aligarh Muslim University: Score 25.4

Rank 98: Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati: Score 22.6

More information on the THE BRICS and Emerging Economies Ranking:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2015/brics-and-emerging-economies

*SciVal is a research metrics analysis tool, part of the Elsevier Research Intelligence portfolio of integrated tools and services.