IITs, world's 3rd best tech universities

There's another feather in the much-adorned IIT cap.

The United Kingdom-based Times Higher Education Supplement has ranked the Indian Institutes of Technology as the third best technology universities in the world for 2005.

In a statement, THES said: "Our peer review of the world's top technology universities shows that in 2004, the high praise for the Indian Institutes of Technology was no fluke. Up to third position in 2005 from fourth place last year, the IITs are a source of Indian national pride as well as innovation and wealth."

The technologists among our peer review panel regard Imperial College London as the UK's hottest university, ahead of Cambridge University and fifth in the world, the statement adds.

The rankings, THES said, is dominated by the United States, no surprise for the world's top high-technology nation. It appears 26 times in the top 101 institutions in our list. For once, this area is one in which Harvard University ranks outside the elite, appearing in 21st place.

"Our definition of technology covers the main engineering disciplines including information and communications technology. Viewed alongside the tables for science subjects, our rankings suggest it is possible for a university to be strong in science but not technology, and vice versa," THES said.

The top science institutions, Cambridge and Oxford universities, cut less of a dash in engineering and IT, placed 6 and 13, respectively, while the IITs come 36th in science despite being third in technology. Overall, 10 of the top 20 institutions in science are rated by our peer review panel as being in the top 20 for technology and IT.

In contrast to science, many technology academics appear rarely in the world's top research publications. This applies especially to institutions outside the English-speaking world but also to some well-rated universities in Australia and elsewhere. It suggests that big US institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the California Institute of Technology, Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley generate not only highly regarded papers but also many commercial innovations and spin-offs, THES said in a media statement.