IIT Kharagpur is the only Indian university to make it to top 100 in THE Impact Rankings 2020

• Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur is the only Indian institute to feature in top 100 in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2020.
  
• The institute has been ranked 57th for making progress in ‘social impact’ aligned with the UN’s sustainable development goals.
  
• It is ranked in top 50 institutes in the world for progress in five of the UN's 17 sustainability goals — including clean water and sanitation, climate action, affordable and clean energy, zero hunger and no poverty.
  
• Apart from the mainstream IITs, much smaller Indian universities like Acharya Nagarjuna University, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and Yenepoya University made it to the top 200 for quality of education.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur became the only Indian institute to feature in top 100 in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2020 released today.

“The rankings provide a measure of the extent to which universities are having a positive social and economic impact on the planet; from climate action and gender equality, to good health and wellbeing,” the THE report said.

The institute has been ranked 57th in THE global rankings for making progress in ‘social impact’ aligned with the UN’s sustainable development goals. It is ranked in top 50 institutes in the world for its progress in five of the UN's 17 sustainability goals — including clean water and sanitation, climate action, affordable and clean energy, zero hunger and no poverty.

This comes on the backdrop of an ongoing row between IIT’s and the Times Higher Education. Seven IIT’s — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Roorkee and Guwahati refused to be a part of THE World University Rankings saying that they are unsure of the parameters and transparency in the process.

However, this row was over university rankings while the current list encompases impact rankings. “It is great to see Indian universities stand as world leaders through their work towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, with success in areas as diverse as clean water and sanitation, climate action. To see IIT Kharagpur achieve India’s best ever results in THE global rankings is a fantastic accolade to the great work universities are taking across the country to put sustainability at the heart of their missions,” said Phil Baty, chief knowledge officer at THE.

IIT Madras, which is ranked in the 301-400 bracket, achieved a position in top 35 for innovation, infrastructure and, clean water and sanitation.

Here are the top 10 Indian universities as per the Impact rankings:

Source: THE

Apart from the mainstream IITs, much smaller Indian universities like Acharya Nagarjuna University, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and Yenepoya University have been ranked among the top 200 institutions for one of the sustainability goals — quality of education.

Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Chitkara University, JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, Pondicherry University have also been ranked in top 200 for gender equality in India.

However, Indian universities still lag behind educational institutions of many countries when it comes to creating ‘impact.’ Of the 766 participating universities from over 89 countries, merely nine Indian universities made it to the top 400 list.

Globally, Australian universities dominated the list with the University of Sydney, Western Sydney University, and La Trobe University in the top four.

See also:
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