New Delhi, October 2
Chandigarh’s Panjab University (PU) has sprung a huge surprise in the world's higher education sector by emerging as India's highest ranked institution in the Times Higher Education World's Top 400 University Rankings 2013-2014 published today.

The varsity beats all 15 Indian Institutes of Technology to emerge not only as India's best, but also as the only Indian entrant to the 226 to 250 group rankings, the best any Indian institution has achieved this year. This year India as a whole has improved its global rankings with three new entrants to the world top 400 university list in the world's most credible rankings powered by Thomson Reuters.

The new entrants are PU, Chandigarh, followed by IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur which have both entered in the world ranking group 351 to 400. These two IITs have joined IIT Kharagpur which has slipped in the world rankings to the 351 to 400 group from the last year's 226 to 250 group ranking. IIT Roorkee is the fifth Indian institution in the top world rankings for this year. It also sits in the 351 to 400 group.

Importantly, though India has added three entrants to the top rankings this year, none of our institutions still figure in the top 200 in the world. PU, the new entrant to this year's list is however close to 200. Asia's best ranked university is the University of Tokyo in Japan, followed by the National University of Singapore. While the exact university ranks will be published by this weekend, the Editor of the rankings, Phil Baty says, "The results should be encouraging for India. While no Indian university is in the top 200 globally, one player new to the rankings Panjab University Chandigarh is close in the 226 to 250 group. Moreover, India now has five representatives in the list, a sign of its growing commitment."

The varsities were ranked against 13 indicators related to a university's core missions, namely teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

The Indian rankings followed a dialogue which the Ministry of HRD organised between Thomson Reuters and Indian university leaders in May this year. Ashok Thakur, Secretary, Higher Education says, "Indian institutions can no longer hide behind the excuse that global ranking metrics are not well suited for them. We must play the same game which others are playing."

India is still far behind in the list with Japan, South Korea and China better represented on the list, considered the most credible in world.