THE Emerging Economies Ranking replaces BRICS Ranking; IISc, IIT-B go up ranking table

New Delhi, May 10: Expanding the BRICS ranking which earlier included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, Times Higher Education (THE) has tweaked the name of the ranking as ‘Emerging Economies Ranking’ which now includes two selected groups of emerging nations. Now, the new ranking includes 350 universities from 42 nations. The groups of countries added to the ranking exercise includes the ‘MINT’ nations (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey), ‘TACTICS’ nations (Thailand, Argentina, Chile, Turkey, Iran, Colombia and Serbia).

Among of the 378 universities ranked in the Emerging Economies Ranking, China leads with 63 universities, a substantial increase over the 52 universities in 2017. The country which has been aptly called ‘the higher education superpower’ by Phil Baty, Editorial Director, Global Rankings of THE,  also has eight universities in the top 10 Emerging Economies ranking.

India with 42 universities comes on the second spot after China. The Indian contingent of universities is led by Indian Institute of Science (IISc) at the 13^th rank. Indian Institute of Technologies (IIT), Bombay, Kharagpur and Kanpur follow at 26^th, 45^th and 49^th position. Except for IISc, which has improved upon its 2017 ranking of 14, IIT Kharagpur taking a huge jump has entered among the top 50 from its last year's Rank of 71 and IIT Bombay which has retained its previous position, the ranks of other Indian higher education institutions have fallen as compared to the previous year. Phil Baty believes that Indian universities have the potential to be among the global leaders. In an interview with Careers360, he said, “The IoE project is a good idea as it recognizes the need for more funding for higher education institutions.”

Though the number of Indian universities in 2018 ranking has increased, the positions of most major universities have seen a downfall. IIT Kanpur, Delhi, Madras, Guwahati, Jadavpur University, University of Delhi, Aligarh Muslim University and Savitribai Phule Pune University are a few of them. On the bright side, IIT Dhanbad (Indian School of Mines), Banaras Hindu University, Jamia Millia Islamia and University of Kerala which did not feature in the 2017 ranking have found a place in 2018 ranking tables.

Though, Russian federation comes at third position with 27 universities, as many as 3 of them feature in the top 15 with Lomonosov Moscow State University at the 3^rd position.

Emerging Economies ranking 2018

Indian Universities and their Emerging Economies Ranking 2018

As per THE, the ‘MINT’ and ‘TACTICS’ nations do not only have young populations, they also display a strong growth in higher education and increasing research output potential.

The performance indicators used for the Emerging Economies rankings remain the same as that for used for THE World University Rankings. The 13 performance indicators classify the universities on teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. However, considering the development priorities of the emerging economies, the performance indicators are been recalibrated, as per THE officials.