OutlookGroup

There's a wide agreement among experts as to what is meant by the term World Class Universities (WCU). Broadly it refers to excellence in education in all disciplines - teaching, research and development and dissemination of knowledge - and activities contributing to the cultural, scientific and civic life of society.

The benchmarks of a WCU are its publications and citations, devotion to research and development, academic freedom, research facilities and infrastructure and diversity of faculty and students, including internationalisation. The London's Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings (THE-QS) has been one of the best sources to compare WCUs (from 2010 THE may bring out the ranking along with another partner). These rankings are now accepted by most top universities in the world.

Take for instance, the Jawaharlal Nehru University, a university with a national character constituted through the Act of Parliament in 1969. Though recognised internationally as a vibrant spot for social science research, the impression gets a bit distorted and far removed, particularly when we compare JNU with other WCUs.

In 2005 and 2006, JNU figured at 183 and 192 respectively among the top 200 world universities in THE-QS rankings. In 2009 it just vanished, and did not figure even among the top 400. For that matter, none of the 400 Indian universities including IIT and the Indian Institute of Science figured among the top 100 in the overall rankings.

On the other hand, Japan has 6, China 2, Hong Kong 3, South Korea 2 and Singapore 2. Only two Indian IITs, Bombay and Delhi, figured in the top 200 universities.

Even in social sciences, the core of JNU's fame, it is placed at 73 behind that of Delhi University at 64. Within India, among the top 20 universities, JNU slipped from sixth position (160 papers) in 1998 to 12th position (186 papers) in 2007 when measured in terms of peer-reviewed international research publications (Science Citation Index Extended data base) in all disciplines.

Dr V. V. Krishna Professor, JNU and Visiting Senior Research Fellow at NUS, Singpaore

Full-fledged university
For instance, even if we were to combine three of India's top institutions (JNU, IIT Delhi and AIIMS) to compare with the National University of Singapore (NUS), they would still fall short along some quantitative measures as student enrolment, faculty, THE-QS rankings and research output (See Table).

Any university aspiring to become a part of WCU needs to institutionalise and professionalise all important disciplines and faculties. JNU, for example, is not involved in the three major fields of medicine, engineering and business management.

It's rather bad perspective planning on the part of JNU underwriters - with its sprawling campus of 1000 acres of prime land in the heart of South Delhi - not to have evolved a vision for its future development all these years.

Let alone the Ivy Leagues in the US, even a cursory comparison with some Asia-Pacific Universities nearer home such as the NUS, Tsinghua University in Beijing, Seoul National University, Sydney University or Tokyo University, clearly reveals the lines on which JNU could strategically structure its vision of expansion.

It is mainly a research university based on graduate studies, involved only in some fields and disciplines as compared to its Asian counterparts. It's a rather narrow mindset prevailing in some circles that any expansion to other such schools and fields of study will erode and tarnish its 'image', which has been built over the years. On the other hand, a realistic assessment will reveal that JNU could have immensely contributed to these disciplines and fields, both intellectually and otherwise.

Expansion and internationalisation
There's nothing in the JNU founders' vision or in its constitution that the university be restricted in its expansion. By not doing so, in more ways than one, it has become an elite institution with hardly 5,500-plus students and a 500-faculty community.

Besides the student numbers, the other important aspect of a full-fledged WCU is that it should be international in its composition and multicultural and inclusive in its ethos, teaching and research.

Foreign students account for less than 7% of total 5,500 student population at JNU as compared to over 50% at Yale (11,000 students), 33% at Oxford (20,000), 33% at NUS (30,000) and 20% at Sydney University (47,000). These universities are also known for recruiting foreign faculty ranging from 15% in the case of Sydney University to over 50% of total faculty and research staff in the case of the NUS.

Just as in the case of other top universities, JNU cannot afford to remain as a residential campus in its future plan of expansion. Another ongoing debate is the sustainability of hostel and food costs. From the perspective of self-generating system, tuition fees collected from foreign students in future could come handy. Rather, this is one of the alternatives to sustain the high level of subsidies given currently.

Research and innovation
Universities have increasingly become the 'new engines' of knowledge-based economies, contributing both to economic growth and societal challenges, whether it is in health and ageing or in sustainability and climate change.

JNU is well-placed to play her part in all three missions of teaching, research and innovation towards nation building. The major task and challenge here, besides its expansion into three additional schools, is the promotion of full-time research institutes linked to academic faculties in JNU's institutional structure.

The idea to promote research institutes within WCU structures is three fold: foster interdisciplinary research for excellence and advancement of knowledge networking with public-private institutions as part of generating research and development funding and transfer systematic knowledge to impact industry and society.

There is no reason why an Indian front ranking institution such as JNU should lag behind in these activities. It is high time we begin to seriously work towards marching ahead along with the world.

The future of WCUs will foster not just interdisciplinary teaching and research but promote innovation and take part in nation building. In doing so, they will also strive to combine internationalisation and inclusive multiculturalism towards evolving a democratic and cosmopolitan culture. Will we see a world class university emerging from JNU?

Editor's note: Establishing WCUs is a costly and time-consuming process. Most nations could manage to establish only a few institutions of that stature. Should India too join the bandwagon? Is JNU the right place to begin? Academics and policy makers are welcome to share their views at editor@careers360.com 
 
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