For the managements of the great majority of institutes listed in the inaugural EW-C fore league tables of the country’s most admired non-IIT engineering colleges/technology institutes, their ranking within state boundaries may well be more valuable than national rank. India’s 28 states and seven Union territories are linguistically, culturally and even ethnically so diverse that usually students and especially faculty, prefer to study and work within state boundaries. It’s also pertinent to note that by global norms, most of India’s 28 states — whose boundaries were redrawn on the basis of dominant vernacular languages in 1956 — are almost countries characterised by vast geographies and huge population. For instance, Uttar Pradesh comprises 243,286 sq. km and hosts a population of 200 million equal to the populations of the UK, France and Germany combined. Maharashtra extends over 307,713 sq. km and has a population of 112 million. In the circumstances, even though students are more willing to cross state boundaries for higher education, professors, lecturers and academics with family responsibilities tend to be less migratory. Consequently, even if they don’t say so overtly directors and top brass of all education institutions tend to derive greater satisfaction from their state rankings. “Supplementing national rankings of engineering and professional education institutions with state-level rankings is useful value addition. For institutional managements the competition for students, faculty and reputation from colleges next door rather than another state, is usually a more pressing consideration. That’s why all the major global university rankings such as QS and THE also provide disaggregated global, Asia and sectoral league tables. Moreover state-level rankings are helpful for students and faculty who may not — for whatever reason — be able to relocate to other more distant states,” concurs Dr. R. Natarajan, former director of IIT-Madras and chairman of the Delhi-based All India Council of Technical Education, the apex-level organisation which licences all institutions of engineering and technology education nationwide. Therefore it’s unsurprising that the top managements of India’s most admired engineering colleges/technology institutes other than the IITs, who believe that they deserve higher ranking in the national league tables, derive considerable comfort from their high state and parameter rankings. “While I am pleased about the inclusion of Delhi Technological University (DTU) in your all-India engineering colleges table, we are truly delighted by our #1 ranking in Delhi and our #2 national ranking on the parameter of placements. These latter rankings more accurately reflect the confidence that industry and society in the Delhi National Capital Region — which hosts some of India’s largest and fastest growing companies — repose in this institute. Likewise the # 2 national ranking on the parameter of placements in industry reflects the faith that the country’s most reputed companies including multinationals, have in DTU, which has a vibrant culture of research and innovation that percolates right down to undergraduate levels,” says Dr. P. B. Sharma, an alumnus of Birmingham University, former professor at IIT-Delhi and founder-director of the Rajiv Gandhi Technological University, Bhopal, and currently director…
