A revolution has started.
After BITS Pilani decided to quit participating in India Today rankings since 2005, BITS decided to give the Dataquest 2008 rankings a skip too. IIT Bombay and NIT Trichy followed suit and quit participating in DQ rankings. Since 2006, NITK Surthkal has been giving rankings a miss too. Jadhavpur university, another very reputed university in east-India gave a miss to these rankings too. ISM Dhanbad isn't found in them either. DCE decided to ignore these rankings as well. Only 6 out of 20 NITs are visible in the rankings.
One wonders what credibility these rankings have, with India's major and most reputed universities deciding not to participate in them:
IIT Bombay
BITS Pilani
NIT Trichy
NITK Surathkal
Delhi College of Engineering (DCE)
ISM Dhanbad
Jadhavpur University
Arguably all the above universities have the potential to rank in top 15 universities in India, with 6 of them (IITB, BITS, NITT, NITK, DCE, ISM) having the potential to rank in top 10 too. If 6 out of top 10 potential frontrunners decide to give these rankings a miss, then surely the credibility of these rankings is doubtable.
Some Surprises in the rankings:
1. 14/20 NITs missing/did not participate.
2. DA IICT at 12th. Though I know it is an upcoming college, but surpassing IIIT-A, BIT-Ranchi, PSG Tech, MNNIT in a year? Sounds undigestible.
3. New Horizon College of Engineering at 20th.
4. Amrita School of Engineering at 21st.
5. Agrasen at 25th.
All these were placed above Manipal Institute of Technology.
6. Almost all the colleges (Except AIT, PESIT, Galgotia) below the 30th rank are relatively unknown.
7. In HR perception MIT tops the list, and IIT Kharagpur, Guwahati are no where to be found.
8. A major flaw in these rankings is that they equate T-Schools with IT schools and take into account majorly IT placements and IT recruiters (During perception rankings). It's about time that they understood that T-Schools are "TECHNOLOGY" Schools imparting complete "ENGINEERING" skills to their students.
9. On a lighter note, the ranking lists IIT Madras as "IIIT Chennai". Yes you read it right! "IIIT" and not "IIT". "Chennai" and not "Madras". The last time I checked they were still called by the name of IIT Madras. Also I didn't know that they were calling IIIT-A as Indian Institute of "Informantion" Technology now-a-days.
It is about time that these magazines, which self-righteously take upon themselves the responsibility of publishing such rankings without any credibility, learn to either pursue responsible journalism, or decide to shut down their businesses. I would not be surprised if more reputed IITs/NITs decide to ignore these rankings which do nothing, but misguide the future generation of students.
http://dqindia.ciol.com/content/top_stories/2008/108060901.asp
http://dqindia.ciol.com/images08/Cover%20story%20table.pdf
8 comments:
BITS Pilani is a B School as it has MBA and Finance, its an IT school as it has Computer Science & Information Systems, its a T School as it has Engineering in Chemical Civil EEE, E&I, Mechanical, its a S School as it has MScs in Bio Sci, Chemistry, Economics, Maths and Physics, its a M/2 School as it has Pharmacy and above that it has Practice School and these great magazines had no clue as how about ranking such an institution which is undoubtedly one among the top ranking universities in India Yesterday,India Today and Tomorrow as its a Leader who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. The industry university linkage strength of BITS Pilani and the passion power of alumni networking of BITSians is way ahead of others.
Dear Sir,
Precisely! You've summarized BITS perfectly. (Of course!) It is an honor to have you here.
Responsible journalism comes above amount of sales generated by publishing flawed information; it's about time that they learnt that.
An enlightening post indeed!
Its sad that such rankings are printed without caring to ensure its credibility. And sadly, the crowd makes a decision not by actually asking students in the college but by following such rankings.
It gives more advantage to colleges ranked a bit lower, which get the fame by being ranked among the "Top 100 Colleges in India".
@ Rash,
Precisely! There is no mechanism in place to check their credibility. The magazines make a lot of money, and misguide the candidates. Very unfortunate.
I was searching NIT Trichy in the ranking and couldn't find it. Many thanks for a wonderful post.
@Deepak
Welcome!
Indeed insightful and thought provoking post especially in this season when lakhs of deserving students are vying for their future. Rankings by magazine is another crass attempt to drive commercial mileage out of education as as rightfully pointed out, many private institutes are leveraging this medium - unfotunate but sad. Premier institutes such as IIT and top NITs + BITS (P) dont need these rankings to justufy them selves. wish students the best in getting into any of these "unranked colleges"
Here You can get so much stuff regarding admission details, cutoff, placement fees procedures ETC.. thanks u so much.. NIT Trichy Cut-offs
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