QS World University Rankings questioned by IIT-Bombay

The authenticity of the QS World University Rankings has been questioned by the scholars at IIT-Bombay, at least in terms of their institute. The students having a doubt on the rankings scrutinized the figures available for the QS World Rankings in 2012 to clarify the doubt. The data of IIT-Bombay and Delhi were compared and some aspects were also compared with the National University of Singapore (NUS). 

The aspects compared include academic and employer reputation which constitute 40% and 10% weightage respectively. Referring to the data on the QS website, the students reached at the conclusion that IIT-Bombay was way ahead of IIT-Delhi but to their surprise IIT-Delhi still succeeded in ranking higher than the institute in Powai.

Another aspect in which IIT-Bombay fares well is that of the student-faculty ratio (SFR), which constitutes 20% weightage. Various discrepancies were witnessed here too. While the figures of SFR for QS stood at 81.4, 35.4 and 28.9 for NUS, IIT-Delhi and IIT-Bombay, the data collected by students depicted a different picture all together. IIT-B’s SFR surpassed even that of NUS. 

Citations per faculty is one area in which the other IITs outweigh IIT-Bombay. But in this context the student’s inspection helped them to reach the conclusion that the papers require citation of an affiliated establishment of research while IIT-B does not restrain a student from stating it in a particular way.  It may be mentioned as IIT-Bombay, I.I.T. Bombay, IIT-Powai or IIT-B and hence may be counted under varied heads.  

Though the QS World Rankings has been in limelight for quite a long time now, but the investigations have revealed that it is full of inconsistencies and is not fool proof. Hence these rankings, whenever used must be considered with some skepticism.