America
Harvard top world university, no Indian varsity in list
New Delhi, March 12
Harvard University of the
US has remained number one in a global ranking of 100 most prestigious
education institutions, followed by Britain's Cambridge and Oxford
universities. No Indian university featured in the list.
According
to the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2015, the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology of the US was pushed to the fourth
spot by the University of Oxford, and Stanford University was pushed to
the fifth spot by the University of Cambridge. Japan's University of
Tokyo led Asia's charge at the 12th spot.
London and Paris were
the two cities with the maximum number of the top universities, with
five universities each featuring in the list.
As far as countries
were concerned, the US confirmed its supremacy, taking eight of the top
10 positions and 43 of the top 100 places -- down from 46 last year
followed by Britain, which has 12 such universities -- up from 10 last
year and nine in 2013.
While most of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia,
India, China) nations made their mark, Indian universities failed to
make it to the rankings, the study said.
"It is really a matter
of concern that a country of India's great intellectual history and its
huge and growing economic power does not have a single university that
is regarded by academics globally as being among the world's most
prestigious," said Phil Baty, editor of Times Higher Education Rankings.
"Brazil,
Russia and China, the other "BRIC" nations, all have at least one
top-100 university in this prestigious list. It is time India gave more
support to its leading universities to ensure that they can compete on a
world stage," added Baty.
At the 25th spot, Russia's Lomonosov
Moscow State University achieved its highest position yet, while
Brazil's University of Sao Paulo jumped from the 81-90 group to the
51-60 band.
China too has gained ground as its top institution,
Tsinghua University, rose 10 places to 26th, while Peking University too
moved up nine places to reach the 32nd spot.
The 2015 World
Reputation Rankings are based on 10,507 responses from 142 countries
conducted between December 2014 and January 2015. In all, 21 countries
are represented in the list.
The poll attracted almost 70,000 responses from more than 150 countries in five annual rounds since the first survey in 2010.