Top 10 Colleges
Of India
As admission time approaches, students face the dilemma of making a choice from among the 10,000-odd colleges. INDIA TODAY-Gallup's fifth survey ranks the centres of excellence on key factors. The best in Arts, Science, Commerce, Law, Medicine and Engineering.

Foreign Policy Privatised
Leaked letters in London imply that Brajesh Mishra, principal secretary to the prime minister, trusted the Hindujas more than the Indian High Commission. The brothers even negotiated with Prime Minister Tony Blair on CTBT.

The Heat Is On
The Raja of Bihar is in trouble again. The CBI has filed yet another chargesheet against him in the multi-crore fodder scam, this time in Jharkhand. A non-bailable arrest warrant issued against him has Laloo in a panic.

Fuzzy Logic
Key nations, including India, are briefed by aides of Bush on the new nuclear doctrine he proposes, but find that there are more questions than answers.

Consumed By Hunger
Maharashtra has a surfeit of foodgrain. Yet, over 500 infants have died in Nandurbar district since January this year of malnutrition and related complications.

EXCLUSIVE INDAI TODAY-GALLUP SURVEY

The Methodology

Ranking a college is a complex procedure that is bound to be hotly debated. Over the years Gallup has evolved for the India Today poll a structured quantitative research technique to arrive at the rankings. A total of 442 randomly chosen senior academicians which included principals, vice-principals, deans and heads of departments were polled in eight centres, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Pune. The respondents were asked to name the colleges they were aware of both within their city and outside. Next they were provided with a comprehensive list of colleges and their awareness of these were assessed. The respondents were then asked to distribute 100 points across the seven specific parameters on a high-to-low importance basis: reputation (overall image, discipline, administration), curriculum (content, variety, research), academic input (practicals, experience of faculty, performance evaluation, records of performance, collaboration with relevant institutions), student care (approachability of faculty and individual attention), admission procedure (quality of qualifying exams and of students admitted), infrastructure (well-equipped laboratories, libraries, computer facilities) and job/placement opportunities.

The respondents assigned higher points to the aspects they considered more important. This year as in our 2000 survey, quality of academic input was considered the most important factor followed by the reputation a college enjoys and then by curriculum, student care and infrastructure. In engineering, job opportunities assumed higher importance. The average importance assigned to each of the aspects was cumulated for every discipline separately. They were also asked to do a five-point rating of the colleges they were aware of on each parameter from Very Poor to Excellent. To arrive at ranks within a particular discipline, the average importance computed for a particular parameter was multiplied by each respondent's rating of the college on that parameter. Adding these weighted ratings across the seven parameters resulted in an "importance-weighted rating" for each college. This rating for every college is then subjected to a second level of weightage-the proportion of the people who are aware of a particular college. This awareness proportion was multiplied with the "importance weighted rating" to arrive at the "overall cumulative ratings (weighted)" for every college, which was then used to determine the rankings.

MetroScape

Summer Of 2001
Flippant and elusive, he can best be described by what he is not. Meet
Bryn Adams in an uncharacteristically forthcoming mood.
more...

Looking Glass

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