“As leading universities in other Asian territories such as China, Hong Kong and Singapore are consistently rising up the rankings, in part thanks to high and sustained levels of funding, India’s flagship Indian Institute of Science moves further away from the elite top 200,” said Phil Baty, editorial director, Global Rankings, Times Higher Education (THE).

The Times Higher Education (THE) has released the latest World University Rankings 2018. Once again, the University of Oxford has topped the list, with California Institute of Technology and Stanford University grabbing the second and third rank respectively.

This year too, no Indian university/institute made it to the top global list of 100.

Further, a significant change in the Times’ 2018 list was seen as the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), which was in the 201-250 band last year, has slipped further into the 251-300 band.

Here’s what Phil Baty, editorial director, Global Rankings, THE, said:

“China, Hong Kong and Singapore all invest very heavily in their university systems. This year, almost all universities in the three regions improved their standing in the ranking, signalling that their commitment to investment has bolstered results year-on-year,” said Phil Baty, Editorial Director, Global Rankings, THE.

No Indian university in top 200 list:

While comparing Indian universities with other international varsities, Baty pointed out that other Asian countries such as China and Singapore had been constantly improving their performance.

“As leading universities in other Asian territories such as China, Hong Kong and Singapore are consistently rising up the rankings, in part thanks to high and sustained levels of funding, India’s flagship Indian Institute of Science moves further away from the elite top 200,” Baty said.

Furthermore, Baty said with India not making to the top 200 list, it is likely that things will improve because of the “really positive news in that India’s overall research income and research quality has risen this year, and the country’s world class university plan shows that it recognises the importance of investing in higher education.”

“Government policy strictly limits the number of students from abroad who can study in India and prevents international scholars from being hired into long-term faculty positions. However, India may recover on this metric because of its world-class university plan, which aims to provide additional funding for selected public and private universities for infrastructure and academics”, it added.

About World University ranking:

“The World University ranking is the only global university performance table to judge research-intensive universities across all of their core missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. We use 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons, trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments,” according to the official website of THE.