As the Times Higher Education (THE) announced its latest edition of World University Rankings, seven IITs have decided to continue boycotting it as not a single Indian institution has made it to the top 300, reported The Indian Express.
The decision was first made by these seven institutions in April last year after none of them found a place in the ranking. They had raised concerns over transparency of the process.
IITs in Mumbai, Delhi, Guwahati, Roorkee, Kharagpur, Madras, and Kanpur had reportedly held meetings with officials from THE this year before the announcement was made.
As per the report, the institutions raised objections over participating institutions being allowed to use collaborative research projects to improve their score on the citation metric, as such papers have high citation value because multiple authors are associated with it.
Speaking to the daily, one of the directors of the IIT said that they never heard back from THE after the meetings and they continue to boycott the rankings.
However, THE's Editorial Director, Phil Baty, told The Indian Express that the ranking system is based on trust and transparency all over the work.
"We firmly believe that the decision not to participate in these globally recognised and trusted rankings disadvantages the IITs. We are proud of our transparent methodology," he told the daily.
Country's top performing institute, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) appeared in the ranking but in the 301-350 bracket.
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