Indian government demands an action plan from IITs to improve global rankings

• The Human Resource Development Ministry (MHRD) has asked the 23 IITs to plan a course of action to improve rankings on national and global scale.
  
• This is in reference to the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University rankings.
  
• The international rank of India’s elite Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) has slipped further this year and none of these premier institutions has featured in the top 100 universities in these global higher education surveys.

The Human Resource Development Ministry (MHRD) is taking the international rankings of its institutions seriously. It has asked the 23 Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) to plan a course of action to improve them.

The international ranking of IITs slipped further this year. None of these premier institutions featured in the top 100 universities in the global higher education surveys.

"The issue was discussed in the IIT Council meeting. It is important to work on research excellence. The IITs have been asked to work on improving their national and international rankings. For this, each IIT will come up with an action plan," PTI reported citing HRD Ministry official.

IITs aside, the ministry is wondering why its top universities like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Hyderabad University do not feature in the top university lists.

“The institutes ought to improve themselves first instead of complaining,” The Print reported citing the ministry’s response to the IITs that complained about the drop in their ranks.

This move came after Times Higher Education (THE) rankings and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University rankings. According to the THE rankings, only six Indian institutions were spotted in the top 500 universities, globally. None of the Indian universities — including IITs and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) — made it to the top 100 list.

In QS rankings, IIT-Bombay, IIT-Delhi and IISc-Bangalore were the only three Indian institutes that featured in top 200 universities.

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