The University of Oxford in the United Kingdom continues to be the top-ranked university in the world for the sixth consecutive year, as per the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
Colleges from the United States continue to dominate the top 20 ranks, with California Institute of Technology, Harvard University and Stanford University taking the second, third and the fourth spot respectively.
The table, with 1,600 universities across 99 countries and territories, is based on 13 indicators that measure four broad areas: Teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.
This year's university rankings come amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the global education system.
Following are a few takeaways from this year's rankings:
1. Universities From 4 Countries Continue To Dominate Top 200
The United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Australia continue to contribute the greatest number of universities to the top 200. With 57 universities, the United States has the highest number of universities in the top 200. The United Kingdom is a distant second with 28 universities. Germany with 22 universities is third in the list while Australia has its 12 universities in the top 200.
2. China's Rise In The University Rankings
China (People's Republic of China) is making its presence felt in the university rankings, with 2 universities in the top 20. Peking University and Tsinghua University share 16th position. Ten Chinese universities find a place in the top 200, up from 7 in the last 2 years. Notably, China just had 3 universities in the rankings 10 years ago. As per the report, the boost in the number of Covid-related citations has also helped the Asian country to improve its standing in the top 200.
3. Covid-19 Research Helps Varsities Improve Ranking
As per this year's report, universities that published research on Covid-19 have seen a significant rise in their citation impact. Nineteen universities have seen a rise in their citation impact score since last year after publishing Covid-related research. Eleven of these universities are in China, while one university each is in Taiwan and Hong Kong. For the uninitiated, citation impact highlights the number of times an academic journal article, book, or author is cited by other scholars.
4. No Indian University In Top 200
While no Indian university is in the top 200, IISc Bengaluru continues to be the highest-ranked Indian institution in the top 350. Five other Indian institutions, including IIT Ropar and IIT Indore, are in the top 600. However, there is some good news for Indian institutions too. A record 71 institutes from India have qualified for this year's rankings, up from 63 last year and 49 two years ago.
One of the reasons for India's exclusion from the top rankings seems to be the poor research culture in Indian institutions. "In universities, most or all faculty have to teach an inordinate number of courses per semester because teaching is the number one priority. This leaves very little time to actually focus on high-quality research work," says Dr Vaidyanathan Jayaraman, Dean - UG Programs, SP Jain School of Global Management.
Dr Jayaraman adds that imposing a cap on the number of hours per year a faculty has to engage in teaching and having a reward system that focuses on quality rather than quantity of journal publications can help in improving Indian universities' rankings.