Here's the online link: India Today - 5 June, 2006
I was unable to get a temporary ID to read the article online but do have the paper copy.

IT mimicing a TIME cover story again?

To do the ranking, they started with a total of 700 colleges covering the fields of Liberal Arts, Science, Engineering, Medicine, Commerce and Law, which a panel of 90 "experts" (HoDs, Principals, Deans, etc.) then whittled down to 400. Next they came up with a shortlist of 210 colleges using a different panel of 400 experts (don't know if there was an overlap of experts in the 2 panels) who gave scores based on some "factual" data (infrastructure, faculty, curriculum, job placement, admission process, reputation) and perceptions. I have a bit of a problem with the latter, which contributed a whopping 70% of the weight.

Anyway, here are the top rankers:

ARTS - St. Xavier's, Mumbai (Stephen's Delhi has lost its hold)
COMMERCE - Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi
SCIENCE - Loyola College, Chennai
ENGINEERING - IIT, Delhi
LAW - National Law School of India University, Bangalore
MEDICINE - All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi

____________________________

Surveys will be surveys... and there is no perfect methodology. Most of us know which colleges are "up there" and which ones are not on the map - and there are no great surprises here. I do not usually much care for these studies; at best, they can help point out some new emerging institution or show general trends in terms of supply-demand. Clearly, though, they make good cover stories - someone should do a survey of how many magazine covers showcase surveys!

So this is an exercise in futility, then?

Why is "up there" not a function of time for places like Harvard, Stephen's, Presidency, Xaviers? They're not likely to get "down there" anytime soon.

Give something like perception 70% weightage and you have a nice positive feedback cycle, if I may use a terminology from electronics. Leading to perception (and thus ranking) amplification.

no access to the online version. where does my alma mater, hindu college come in?

I've never subscribed but r'ber being able to read some articles with the guest/temporary ID in the past.

ARTS
1. Xavier's, Mumbai
2. Presidency, Kolkata
3. Loyola, Chennai
4. LSR, Delhi
5. Stephen's, Delhi
6. Xavier's, Kolkata
7. Presidency, Chennai
8. Fergusson, Pune
9. Hans Raj, Delhi
10. Hindu, Delhi

Trips,
How come you have a paper copy ? I subscribe to " India Today " , the 5th June copy came in today but no survey you mentioned. Could it be that I get the N.A. edition and this was excised ?
All the same HURRAY for Xavier's Bombay. !!
Peace.

They put Hans Raj above Hindu? Have things really changed so much in the decade or so since I was last at DU? And LSR outranks Stephen's? OK. The only ranking among the ones listed that I can accept unequivocally is the one for the National Law School. It is truly a stellar institute and the other law programmes do not even come close.

It's a delightful modern-day transaction called purchasing, that's how come I prefer the age-old custom of barter myself but they simply wouldn't accept Mr. Trips, handsome young man though he is, in exchange for this 5th June Indian edition, which has the Top Ten Colleges as its cover story.


This (as well as some other rankings) surprised me too. The article states that an expert in the panel was not allowed to rank his or her own institution. (But what was to prevent them from "downgrading" an "enemy" institution, I wonder). I was surprised that LSR outranks Stephen's in Arts and Miranda House outranks both Hindu and Hans Raj in the Science category. This may be flawed logic on my part, but if one eliminates at least half the applicants (males) in the admission process, for these womens colleges (a minute fraction of the co-ed colleges) to have done so well, the brightest in the female population would have had to have entered these women's colleges and not the co-ed ones, no?
Anyway, the rankings were based on reputation, curriculum, quality of academic input, student care, admission procedure, infrastructure and job prospects and then some "factual data."

Hard to have a discussion on this or the other interesting "The Economist" thread when they won't allow a temporary guest login in order to be able to view the articles online. Maybe we could all chip in and get an AS subscription where any AS member can view these "premium" articles...