In an official statement, the institute said that it will no longer share subject-level and institutional data needed for THE rankings. “BITS Pilani is dedicated to ensuring transparency, methodological robustness, and verifiable benchmarking in higher education evaluation,” the statement stated.
BITS Pilani will therefore not be included in the upcoming editions of the Times Higher Education rankings, including the Rankings by Subject, Asia University Rankings, and World University Rankings, it added.
IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Roorkee, and IIT Guwahati have boycotted Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings due to transparency issues since 2020.
Speaking about the decision, BITS Pilani group Vice-Chancellor Professor V. Ramgopal Rao described the ranking process as a ‘black box’ that did not correspond with the verified academic and research capacities of Indian universities.
The ‘Research Quality pillar, which accounts for 30% of an institution’s total score, was at the centre of the pullout. This pillar is based on citation behaviour, as are its sub-indicators: research durability, citation impact, excellence, and influence.
BITS Pilani is moving away from THE World University Rankings, but benchmarking will not go away. Rather, it is turning its attention to more stringent, transparent, and result-oriented policies.
Compared to THE, Computer Science Rankings or CSRankings, evaluates universities based on their publications in prestigious, curated journals rather than citation-derived metrics.
According to Professor Rao, BITS Pilani has “performed exceptionally well in this framework compared to established premier research institutions,” and the data is transparent.
Professor Rao further commended the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) as a reliable substitute. Citing NIRF’s open approach and data source transparency, he stated that institutions know exactly what is being measured and why.
He hailed NIRF for improving institutional reflection and data discipline across the Indian higher education system.
According to Professor Rao, as the field develops, more academic institutions will enquire whether ranking results actually correspond to their approaches to managing student performance. Universities may choose particular and ethical involvement over default participation when that alignment appears to be lacking.
