MANY organisations, including the Higher Education Commission, rank universities. Ranking is based on a multitude of criteria.

China, India and many other countries have improved their ranking image, while we have slid down.

For instance, India has improved its showing in the prestigious university rankings of Times Higher Education Emerging Economies with 49 institutions listed. The Indian Institute of Science (14th) is followed by the IIT, Mumbai, (27th).

India has approved an expenditure of over Rs36 billion for setting up 13 central universities in the next 36 months that are to be set up in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pardesh, Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. While one university each is to be set up in 11 of these states, Indian-occupied Kashmir will get two new central varsities.

Top five positions in China go to Tsinghua University network. Meanwhile, Banaras Hindu University and Amrita University both ascended this year into the top 150, while the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, and the IIT, Hyderabad, appeared for the first time in this group.

It is worthwhile to spend on education to arrest steady stagnation.

A.J Malik
Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2019