India’s top 100 institutes have faculty with most PhDs, says NIRF report

As per the National Institutional Ranking Framework’s (NIRF) 2023 report, the majority of faculty members holding doctoral qualifications are concentrated within the top 100 institutions in the country. 73.6% of the faculty in the country’s top one hundred universities have a PhD as compared to 64.29% in the remaining ranked by the NIRF.

According to the authors of the report, who assess higher education institutions across different categories, they discovered “interesting and valuable insights” from the collected data used for rankings.

The study stated: “Data regarding publications, citations, and patents was sourced from Scopus (Elsevier Science), Web of Science, and Derwent Innovation (Clarivate Analytics). In addition to utilising this data for institutional rankings, the comprehensive collection of data from all eligible institutions presents a distinctive opportunity for analysis and the acquisition of intriguing and practical insights.”

The discrepancy is glaring in engineering institutes where over 81% of the faculty in top 100 colleges have a PhD against 35% in the rest. Similar trends have been observed with research publications and citations as well, with the maximum number of publications and citations coming out only from the top 100 institutions.