University of Hyderabad (UoH) – an Institution of Eminence (IoE) – continues to occupy the top slots in QS World University Subject Rankings 2022 released recently.
This year the QS analysed and published rankings for 51 subjects from 1,543 universities across 161 locations around the world. The university rankings by subject were assessed based on five indicators: r among academics, reputation among global employers, research citations per paper in the subject, the ‘h-index’, which measures the productivity and impact of each published scholar of the university, and e) International Research Network (IRN) which is a measure of the efficiency and stability of research collaborations in the 5 broad subject areas. Within UoH, the Department of English is in the 301-320 ranks, and remains the top-ranked subject for the second consecutive year. Chemistry is within the 401-450 ranks. Closely following them are the Life Sciences at 551-600 and Physics at 601-610. All of these academic units in UoH have produced highly-cited work, with faculty publishing in top-ranked journals.
UoH also featured in 36 subjects out of 51 narrow subjects under 5 broad subject areas viz. Arts & Humanities, Engineering & Technology, Life Sciences & Medicine, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences & Management in the ranking.
The University’s IoE mandate is to figure among the world’s top 500 in the World University Rankings.
Prof BJ Rao, Vice-Chancellor, UoH, said: “I am delighted to see that two of our disciplines, English and Chemistry, have already met the IoE mandate of entering the top 500 ranks. The Life Sciences and Physics are not far behind. Yes, we have slid down in these disciplines from 2021, and that is a matter of some concern. We need to ensure better publications from faculty/researchers to ensure an upward movement in the rankings, and we will take some vigorous measures to meet this requirement. As I see it, it is not the number of publications, but the place of publication that matters, so any and every publication cannot be counted. UoH has also instituted a “zero-tolerance to plagiarism” policy which I see as a step in the right direction for quality control.”
Congratulating all four disciplines, and English and Chemistry, in particular, Prof Rao added, “these rankings enable our students too in multiple ways because as beneficiaries of education at the hands of the best researchers will strengthen their foundations. He hopes that other disciplines too which are currently missing in the top-ranking category would catch up soon in the near future.”