Delhi University is country’s top university

The University of Delhi (DU) is the leading university in India, according to a new survey that has ranked the country’s top 20 universities. The extensive survey, commissioned by Zee News and DNA, was conducted by Ipsos, the world’s third-ranked research agency. According to the findings, DU topped the list, followed by University of Bombay and Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Other top slots are occupied by Jadavpur University, Pune University and Banaras Hindu University. University of Calcutta, Hyderabad University, and Aligarh Muslim University are in the top 10, closely followed by the Universities of Vellore, Osmania and Punjab.

Manipal University, Amity University-Noida, Nirma University-Gandhinagar, Lovely Professional University-Jallandhar, Manglayatan University-Aligarh, Annamalai University and Sagar University are the others that figure in the top 20.

The research was undertaken to analyse the state of higher education in India. According to Satish K Singh, Editor of Zee News, “Only knowledge and know-how can make India a superpower. Already much progress has been made and education has become the preferred vehicle in the journey.”    

“At a time when even governments of the day are pitching so much for education, particularly higher education, Zee News thought it is imperative to carry out a detailed survey of our universities vis-a-vis contemporary and future needs. We also wanted to assess how prepared we were in terms of our forward march to obtain a leadership position in the world. So this was one of our big initiatives; many more will follow,” Singh added.

The survey was backed by foolproof groundwork done on the basis of opinions of leading academicians, faculty members and alumni, and current as well as prospective students of the various universities.

Elaborating on the procedure of the research, B ‘Nary’ Narayanaswamy of Ipsos said, “These rankings were derived from a survey among prospective students, current students, faculty, and those who have graduated. The research was carried out in 10 cities and measured the perceptions of the various colleges/universities among these groups. The perceptions were gathered using a 10-point scale, on overall opinion as well as perceptions on 12 parameters. A respondent rated only those colleges/universities he or she was familiar with. The rankings were based on the final data from a sample of 1,863 such ‘familiar’ respondents in all.”

The parameters of the survey were chosen after a lot of research and planning. The history and reputation, admission process, course curriculum, learning environment, faculty competence, infrastructure, foreign exchange programmes, research facilities, laboratories and workshops, hostel facilities, placements, and new innovative courses of the universities were taken into account while conducting the survey.