For the first time, an Indian educational institute has featured in the top ten list of global university rankings.
In the second edition of Times Higher Education’s ‘World’s Best Small Universities Ranking 2017’, which was released today, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has been ranked at the eighth spot.
Last year, IIT Guwahati was at 14th spot whereas Savitribai Phule Pune University was ranked 18th.
Small universities are those where strength of students are fewer than 5,000. Besides, they teach and research across more than four disciplines. Such universities also offer a broad curriculum of arts and humanities, engineering and technology, medicine, life sciences, physical sciences and social sciences.
The IISc was established in 1909 with active support from Jamsetji Tata and HH Sir Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV and the Maharaja of Mysore. Since then, it has made significant contributions to life sciences, advanced computing, space, and nuclear technologies.
The institute acquired the status of a deemed university in 1958. Today, IISc is regarded as India's best university. It was also the first Indian institute to feature on Times Higher Education World University Rankings for engineering and technology in the year 2015-16 at 99th position.
The US-based California Institute of Technology is ranked number 1 in the ‘World’s Best Small Universities Ranking 2017’ list.
Three institutes each from France and Italy have marked their presence in the list.
The three institutes from France are: Ecole Normale Superieure (second), Ecole Polytechnique (fourth) and Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon (seventh).
Italy’s three are: Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (fifth), Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (sixth) and Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (tenth).
None of these institutes have more than 3,000 students.
South Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology came in at the third place and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences at ninth.
