UGC chief says global institute rankings need modiifications, talks on

D P Singh, Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), on Monday, said that the centre is in talks with global agencies over modifications in their parameters so that efforts of Indian universities in providing education to marginalised classes do not go unnoticed at the time of the preparations of annual rankings for education institutions.

'Agencies rely on global participation'

While replying to a question about the performance of Indian universities in global rankings at the National Conference of Vice-Chancellors, he said that these agencies rely majorly on ‘global participation’ which is a factor that the Indian universities lack. He said, "We need to understand first how rankings are given. Global ranking agencies put more stress on global participation. They mainly see how many foreign students from how many countries study in a particular university. In addition, the number of foreign teachers in an institution is also an important parameter for such global agencies.”

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He also said, "Agencies also look for international projects, patents and global reputation. These are the key parameters for agencies and our universities lagged in them,” while also adding, “Ranking agencies need to take into account how a developing nation like India is addressing its social concerns and diversity. Global rankings do not reflect our efforts in educating the marginalised sections such as minorities, SCs/ STs as well as women. Our government is telling these agencies to include these parameters too. We are trying to see that agencies change their parameters.”

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Centre's scheme

He also talked about the Centre's Institutions of Eminence scheme and said that it would prove to be an important step in creating world-class institutions in the next 10 to 15 years.

As per the ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'' announced recently, no Indian university figured in the list of top 300 academic institutions.

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(With PTI Inputs)