JNU VC lauds university's epistemic community for securing top position in QS rankings 2024

NEW DELHI: Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice-Chancellor Santishree D Pandit on Wednesday praised the university's epistemic community for making 'Bharat' proud and securing the top position in the 2024 QS rankings. "JNU believes in excellence with equality, entrepreneurship with equity, inclusion with innovation and integrity with intelligence. I thank my epistemic community as they have made 'Bharat' proud as a knowledge power and as vishwaguru," she told PTI.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is the highest-ranked university in India in the coveted rankings announced by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the London-based higher education analytics firm. The university is ranked at 20th position globally for development studies.

QS CEO Jessica Turner said, "One of the biggest challenges faced by India is educational -- providing high-quality tertiary education in the face of exploding demand: this much was recognised by 2020's NEP (National Education Policy), which set the ambitious target of a 50 per cent gross enrolment ratio by 2035. It should, therefore, provide some reassurance that the number of Indian programmes featuring across our 55 subject rankings and five broad faculty areas has increased this year -- from 355 to 454."

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"QS also notes that several programmes at India's three privately-run Institutes of Eminence have made progress this year, demonstrating the positive role that well-regulated private provision can have in enhancing India's higher education sector. While there is still a lot of work to be done to improve standards, access to higher education, universities' digital readiness and global competitiveness, it is clear that India is taking significant steps in the right direction," Turner added.

QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024

In this year's QS World University Rankings by Subject, India has demonstrated significant progress, with a 20 per cent improvement in the Citations per Paper indicator, reflecting a strong research capability. Additionally, there has been a 16 per cent growth in the International Research Network indicator, which measures the volume and diversity or research partnerships.

In the 2024 QS World University Rankings, in the broader Asian regional context, India secured the second spot in terms of the number of universities featured (69), trailing only mainland China (101), and holds the fourth position in the total number of ranked entries (454) after China (1,041), Japan (510) and South Korea (499). India ranks fifth regionally for the number of top 200 entries and sixth for the number of top 100 entries.