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.

FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF

Around this time of the year, many young readers of INDIA TODAY and their parents look forward to what is now an annual feature: our survey of the top colleges of India. For tens of thousands of students across India who are seeking higher education, their performance in school-leaving examinations is just one part of a high-anxiety search for a future. An equally crucial step is where they can go and which institutions offer the best courses in their preferred stream of study. However, until INDIA TODAY institutionalised this annual rating in 1997, there was no dependable source of comparative data to discern the quality of the 10,000 or so colleges in the country.

Previous covers of top-colleges surveys

So it isn't without reason that our top-colleges survey creates a buzz among students, parents, college officials-and that proud species, the alumni. There is always a debate on the findings; ranking a college is a very complex process. But over the years, we have developed a sophisticated system with Gallup Organization, a major polling and research firm. For version 2001 of our top-colleges survey, 442 randomly chosen academics -principals, vice-principals, deans and heads of departments-were reached in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Pune. They studied a comprehensive list of colleges and graded them using various yardsticks, including academic quality, student care and job placements.

The importance of this peer review needs to be underscored. In east Asia, Europe and North America, the establishment enforces best-practice review and quality control. The irony is that in a country obsessed with higher education as a stepping stone to careers, self-imposed quality checks for colleges except the very best are pathetic, state monitoring is almost non-existent and consequently, students are held hostage by a callous, greedy system. A credible ranking introduces a competitive edge as students find direction about the choice of college while institutions realise what they are stacked up against and what they need to do to improve. We cannot claim the survey is the final word, but it is the best we have, and it gets better every year.

(Aroon Purie)

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...

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