To compile the second EW India Top 100 Private College Rankings 2019-20, C fore constituted a sample respondents database of 1,770 knowledgeable individuals comprising 932 college faculty and 838 final year students to rate and rank the country’s most well-known arts, science and commerce colleges on six parameters of undergrad education excellence – Summiya Yasmeen In 2016, your editors pioneered the first comprehensive field survey-based national ranking of the country’s best private higher education institutions including private universities, private engineering institutions and privately promoted B-schools. This (and subsequent) private higher ed institutions field surveys were conducted by the well-respected Delhi-based market research and opinion polls company Centre for Forecasting and Research (C fore) which also conducts the annual EW India School Rankings (estb.2007) and EW India Preschool Rankings (2010). The rationale for excluding government-promoted institutions such as the IITs, NITs, IIMs, etc was that since they are monotonously top-ranked in league tables of mainstream and business publications, a more useful social purpose would be served by spotlighting and ranking the rising number of private higher education institutions in their discrete categories. Moreover, over 67 percent of students in Indian higher education are enrolled in private institutions. Last year, responding to feedback received from readers and given that the overwhelming majority of the country’s estimated 39 million school-leavers are admitted into multi-disciplinary arts, science and commerce colleges annually, we commissioned C fore to conduct an additional survey to also rate and rank the country’s Top 100 private arts, science and commerce colleges in six metro cities. Ditto this year. To compile the second EW India Top 100 Private College Rankings 2019-20, C fore constituted a sample respondents database of 1,770 knowledgeable individuals comprising 932 college faculty and 838 final year students to rate the country’s most well-known arts, science and commerce colleges (shortlisted by EducationWorld) on six parameters of undergrad education excellence viz, competence of faculty, faculty welfare and development, curriculum and pedagogy, industry placements, infrastructure and leadership and governance — on a 100 point scale, with the vital parameter of faculty competence accorded double weightage. The scores awarded by respondents under each parameter were totalled and formed the basis for ranking the country’s Top 100 multi-disciplinary arts, science and commerce (ASC) colleges inter se. Right at the top there’s no change in the 2019-20 league table of India’s best ASC colleges. The national capital’s star undergrad colleges and crown jewels of Delhi University — St. Stephen’s College (#1), Shri Ram College of Commerce (2) and Lady Shri Ram College for Women (3) — continue to dominate the Top 10 table. Mumbai’s showpiece St. Xavier’s College too has retained its #4 rank although this year it shares it with Bangalore’s Christ University, ranked #6 in 2018-19. The all-women Miranda House, Delhi, ranked #1 in the Union HRD ministry’s NIRF league table, has not made as great an impact on the 1,770 EW sample respondents as it has on the babus of the HRD ministry, and is ranked #5. Prof. John Varghese,…
