The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee expressed confidence that India will sooner than later find its rightful place in the global ranking of higher education institutions. He said Indian educational institutions dominated the world for a period of around 1800 years from 6th century B.C. to 13th century A.D. and were a magnet for scholars from all over the world. India must regain the lost glory of the past and once again become a centre for cross fertilization of ideas from across the world.
The President made the above remarks while addressing a delegation from QS, ICAA, British Council, FICCI and KPMG who presented the first copy of “QS University Rankings: Asia 2014” to him at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Pointing out that he has been emphasizing the need for Indian education institutions to give importance to enhancing their global rankings, the President expressed happiness that these efforts are bearing fruit with the number of Indian institutions in the new Asian Universities Ranking published by QS increasing to 17 as compared to 11 last year.
The President told the delegation that Indian authorities will extend all possible cooperation to them in obtaining necessary information in the appropriate format from Indian higher education institutions. He said higher educational institutions should be transparent and all relevant information should be published in their websites.