8 months ago
India’s Private Universities Questioned Over THE Rankings
Some Indian private universities are doing really well in a recent global university ranking called THE.
But people are surprised because these universities are not as famous as the IITs or IISc.
The rankings show that these universities have very high 'Research Quality' scores, almost as good as famous universities like Oxford and Cambridge.
But when you look at their 'Research Environment', it's not as good.
This makes people think that maybe these universities are trying to trick the system to look better than they really are.
Some experts think that these universities might be making their research look better by having their own teachers and students cite each other's work a lot.
This is a problem because it might not be a true picture of how good the universities really are.
Students should be careful and ask questions before choosing a university based on these rankings.
Private Indian universities like Saveetha Institute and Jamia Millia Islamia have high 'Research Quality' scores in THE World University Rankings 2026, surpassing IITs and IISc.
There is a significant discrepancy between 'Research Quality' and 'Research Environment' scores for these universities, raising concerns about data integrity.
Experts suggest that some universities may be manipulating research metrics through self-citations and undergraduate publication models.
Seven older IITs stopped participating in THE Rankings in 2020 due to unclear ranking methodology.
Students are advised to question the rankings before choosing an institution for higher studies.
- Who
- Indian private universities, including Saveetha Institute, Jamia Millia Islamia, Shoolini University, and Banaras Hindu University
- What
- Questioning of THE World University Rankings 2026 due to anomalies in 'Research Quality' scores
- Where
- India
- When
- THE World University Rankings 2026
- Why
- Concerns over data integrity and potential manipulation of research metrics
Key facts
- IISc Rank
- 201-250
- Saveetha Institute Rank
- 351-400
- Jamia Millia Islamia Rank
- 401-500
- Shoolini University Rank
- 401-500
- Banaras Hindu University Rank
- 501-600
- Saveetha Institute Research Quality
- 93.4
- Graphic Era University Research Quality
- 92.0
- Oxford Research Quality
- 97.7
- Cambridge Research Quality
- 97.1
- Yale Research Quality
- 97.2
- IISc Research Quality
- 51.2
- IIT Patna Research Quality
- 70.4
- IIT Indore Research Quality
- 63.9
- Saveetha Institute Research Environment
- 18.4
- Graphic Era University Research Environment
- 22.2
- Chitkara University Research Environment
- 16.7
- Lovely Professional University Research Environment
- 22.0
- IITs Participating in THE Rankings
- None (since 2020)
Quotes
Former IIT professor
A former professor at an Indian Institute of Technology
“This divergence is a red flag for data integrity. Although my institute stopped taking part in the THE Rankings 2020 onwards, when a university’s citation impact soars while its research infrastructure remains in the basement, it suggests the institution is optimising for an algorithm rather than building a culture of research.”
financialexpress.com
“Some institutes have adopted an undergraduate publication model, requiring students to publish in Scopus-indexed journals to graduate. There have been cases of students citing their own professors’ previous works just to clear the graduation hurdle.”
financialexpress.com
Prof V Ramgopal Rao
IIT Delhi director from 2016-21 and now group vice-chancellor of BITS Pilani
“The challenges with the rankings are of reputation and perception scores. Those are black boxes. What is the geographical distribution of those who are providing perception scores? Another concern is institutional self-citations. What is happening in some universities is that one faculty member writes a paper, and they ask all other faculty members to cite the paper. At the institutional level, they’re increasing their own citation count. For rankings, papers with over 200 authors are also considered, and paper retractions are not accounted for properly.”
financialexpress.com
