Institutional rankings of education institutions — schools, universities — tend to evoke wry smiles from academics and the cognoscenti. They are well aware that publication of league tables rating and ranking schools, colleges, universities provides great opportunity for raking in advertising windfalls. Therefore, the credibility of institutional rankings is not high. But at risk of sounding self righteous, there are media publications and media publications. It’s ill-advised to tar all with the same brush.

Unlike all other print and online media publications, EducationWorld (estb.1999) is India’s pioneer education news magazine promoted with serious intent to focus national attention upon the critically important — but neglected — subject of quality education for all (QEFA) and human capital development. It’s astonishing but true, the learned grey eminences and economists of global renown — now not even meriting mention in the footnotes of history — who drew up 13 elaborate five-year plans to hoist post-independence India’s economy into the orbit of the world’s most developed countries, were blindsided about QEFA being the necessary precondition of national development.

Therefore, divinely blessed with this revelation, we address all matters related to education — including the rating and ranking of education institutions — with greater gravitas and responsibility than mainstream magazines and media that have climbed aboard the rankings bandwagon. Indeed most schools, colleges and universities that rank high in EW league tables tend to be very parsimonious about advertising their virtues in this publication, its sui generis status notwithstanding.

Be that as it may, in this unique issue, we not only present detailed league tables rating India’s most respected private and public universities (excluding the highly inaccessible IITs which routinely top all media rankings) but unprecedented for an Indian publication, league tables ranking America’s best universities for undergrad education. According to Raymond Ravaglia, former Dean of the Stanford University Pre-Collegiate Studies, American universities that routinely top the QS, THE and other rankings are high ranked because of their excellence in research, publications, citations — all postgrad activities — and peer reputation, selectivity and endowment corpus, parameters which obfuscate, if not neglect, the quality of undergrad education. High-quality undergrad education must be measured by an entirely different set of metrics based on verifiable, publicly accessible data. Let me say no more. Read our second lead story for yourself and prepare to be converted.

As usual, there is rich intellectual fare in this summer issue. Check out our excellent Expert Comment and Teacher2Teacher essays written by real experts, People and book reviews. A stimulating cognitive feast.