ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2020 in Engineering Gangan Prathap A P J Abdul Kalam Technological University, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India 695016 and Institute of Computer Science and Digital Innovation, UCSI University, 56000 Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia e-mail: gangan_prathap@hotmail.com Abstract Indian Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) have not fared significantly better in the Shanghai Rankings 2020 when compared to immediately preceding years. India now has a presence in seventeen of the twenty-two subject areas in Engineering in which there are institutes globally that meet the required Shanghai Rankings threshold for that area. It has no institution which can be counted at this level of size and excellence in five subjects in the Engineering field in 2020: Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Environmental Science & Engineering, Remote Sensing and Transportation Science & Technology. Keywords Shanghai Rankings ∙ Engineering ∙ Research performance ∙ Second-order indicators 1 Introduction ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2020 (GRAS 2020) was released on Monday, June 29, 2020 at Shanghai, People's Republic of China by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. Since 2009, ShanghaiRanking Consultancy (SRC) has published the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) by academic subjects. Rankings are made in 54 subjects across Natural Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences. More than 4000 universities were ranked and of these more than 1800 from 90 countries and regions appear a total of 19100 times on the league table. Universities from the United States appear 4826 times, followed by Chinese universities (2647 times) and universities from the United Kingdom (1607 times). University of British Columbia, the University of New South Wales, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, The Ohio State University-Columbus, The University of Melbourne and McGill University are presented on the league table in more than 50 subjects, more than any other universities. The Engineering rankings are available for twenty-two engineering subjects (the list is shown in Table 1). Methodology ShanghaiRanking Consultancy uses a transparent methodology and third-party data. Ranking indicators include those measures of research productivity, research quality, extent of international collaboration, research with top quality, and the highest academic recognitions. In GRAS 2020, the ‘PUB’ indicator is replaced by the ‘Q1’, defined as the number of papers authored by an institution in an Academic Subject in journals with Q1 Journal Impact Factor Quartile in order to encourage research with high quality. The bibliometric data are from Web of Science and InCites database produced by Clarivate Analytics. The ranking indicators are: Q1 The number of papers published in Q1 Journal Impact Factor Quartile in an Academic Subject CNCI Category Normalized Citation Impact from InCites to measure average impact of papers authored by an institution in an Academic Subject IC The percentage of internationally co-authored papers authored by an institution in an Academic Subject TOP The number of papers published in top journals and conferences in an Academic Subject 2 AWARD The total number of the staff of an institution winning a significant award in an Academic Subject SRC uses a weighting system that allocates different weights for different subjects. For each indicator, scores for institutions are calculated as a percentage of the top scoring institution, then the square root of the percentage is multiplied by the allocated weight. A final score is arrived by adding scores for all indicators and the final score is ranked in descending order. We shall call these the SR Ranks. In the present analysis, we shall focus on the research performance aspect of the Indian institutions in the Shanghai Rankings for Engineering. Q1 (as a zeroth-order size-dependent measure of quantity of output) and TOP/Q1 (as a measure of quality or excellence of output) allows us to compute X = TOP2/Q1 as a second-order composite indicator of performance1. Note that although TOP is a quantity measure, the ratio of TOP/Q1 is a good proxy for the quality of research. We shall re-rank the institutions in descending order and call these the X-ranks. Note that if an institution has both Q1 and TOP equal to 100, X is 100. However, this does not mean that X cannot exceed 100! For example, in Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology has an SR Rank of 8 has a Q1 = 36.0 and a TOP = 100.00 yielding an X = 277.78. This takes it to the top position in the X-rank league! Beihang University was ranked No. 1 in the Shanghai Rankings for Aerospace Engineering. However, with Q1 = 100 and TOP = 90.4, its X = 81.72 moves it to a modest 26th rank. This is not surprising as the second-order indicator rewards high quality and punishes poor quality because of the quadratic term assigned to the quality proxy1. Table 1 shows what happens to the No. 1 position when the X-ranks are used instead of the SR-ranks for all all the 22 subjects in the engineering field. We think that this gives a better picture than the weighting scheme used by SRC if our attention is to be restricted to research performance alone. Results and discussions Universities from India which have been ranked by SRC in 22 engineering subjects are now assigned X-ranks as indicated above. In 2020, India has a presence in seventeen of the twentytwo subject areas in which there are institutes globally that meet the required threshold for that area. It has no institution which can be counted at this level of size and excellence in five 3 subjects in the Engineering field: Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Environmental Science & Engineering, Remote Sensing and Transportation Science & Technology. India’s engineering research base is skewed towards hard-core areas, e.g. Chemical Engineering (18 institutions), Energy Science & Engineering (11) and Mechanical Engineering (11). We have tracked the appearance of the 29 universities or institutions which have appeared in the SRC GRAS in Engineering over the last three years in Table 3. The Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR) makes an impressive new entrance into the list for the first time in 2020, in five subject areas. In two areas, Biomedical Engineering and Remote Sensing, no institution features in any of these three years. The IIT at Kharagpur showed up in 16 areas in 2018, but this has come down to 14 and 13 in 2019 and 2020 respectively. In the same manner the Indian Institute of Science count has diminished from 13 to 11 and 10 respectively over the years. The IITs at Delhi (12,10,10)), Madras (12,12,10), Bombay (11,10,11), Roorkee (9,7,5) also appear to show a similar decline. Anna University (10,5,3) and Jadavpur University (7,5,3) have registered similar trends. Relative to the IITs, these are state universities with vastly limited funding. Thapar University (3,5,3) and Vellore Institute of Technology (1,2,3) are the only private universities that make it to this class. If totals are aggregated, from 2018 to 2020, the Indian presence in GRAS for Engineering has steadily declined from 124 in 2018 to 107 in 2019 and 105 in 2020. Conclusions The SRC Subject Rankings 2020 has been recently released. We use the data to see how Indian Higher Educational Institutions have fared in the Engineering field over the last three years. The Indian Institute of Science and the older Indian Institutes of Technology stand out among Indian counterparts but are far below global competitors. In two subjects: Biomedical Engineering and Remote Sensing, it has no institution which can be counted at this level of size and excellence in any of the three years. India’s engineering research base is skewed towards hard-core areas like Chemical Engineering (18 institutions), Energy Science & Engineering (11) and Mechanical Engineering (11). 4 References 1. Prathap, G., The Energy–Exergy–Entropy (or EEE) sequences in bibliometric assessment. Scientometrics, 2011, 87(3), 515-524. Website accessed: http://www.shanghairanking.com/index.html 5 Table 1. The 22 subject areas in the engineering field and the No. 1 universities from the SR rankings and the X-Ranking protocol respectively. Field Engineering Subject Aerospace Engineering Automation & Control Biomedical Engineering Biotechnology Chemical Engineering SR No. 1 Beihang University Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Harvard University Harvard University Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) X-Rank No. 1 Georgia Institute of Technology KTH Royal Institute of Technology Fudan University NA Beijing University of Chemical Technology Civil Engineering Tongji University University at Buffalo, the State University of New York Computer Science & Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Stanford University Electrical & Electronic Engineering Energy Science & Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Nanyang Technological University University of California, Berkeley Stanford University Environmental Science & Engineering Food Science & Technology Harvard University Jiangnan University ETH Zurich NA Instruments Science & Technology Marine/Ocean Engineering Harbin Institute of Technology Shanghai Jiao Tong University NA Dalian University of Technology Materials Science & Engineering Mechanical Engineering Metallurgical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) University of Cambridge University of Science and Technology Beijing Harvard University University of Cambridge University of Science and Technology Beijing Mining & Mineral Engineering Central South University China University of Mining and Technology - Xuzhou Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Remote Sensing Nanyang Technological University Wuhan University Nanyang Technological University California Institute of Technology Telecommunication Engineering Tsinghua University NA Transportation Science & Technology Water Resources Beijing Jiaotong University University of Arizona NA Flinders University 6 Table 2. The engineering subjects in which Indian universities have been ranked by SRC. Institution Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR) Aligarh Muslim University Anna University Banaras Hindu University Guru Nanak Dev University Indian Institute of Science Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi XRank 2018 NA NA NA NA NA 234 186 372 284 195 373 481 386 300 197 391 NA 385 238 NA 288 43 72 249 163 257 227 137 374 87 32 285 57 109 NA NA Subject Biotechnology Chemical Engineering Energy Science & Engineering Materials Science & Engineering Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Chemical Engineering Automation & Control Biotechnology Chemical Engineering Civil Engineering Energy Science & Engineering Environmental Science & Engineering Materials Science & Engineering Mechanical Engineering Metallurgical Engineering Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Telecommunication Engineering Biotechnology Chemical Engineering Metallurgical Engineering Food Science & Technology Aerospace Engineering Chemical Engineering Civil Engineering Computer Science & Engineering Electrical & Electronics Engineering Energy Science & Engineering Instruments Science & Technology Materials Science & Engineering Mechanical Engineering Metallurgical Engineering Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Telecommunication Engineering Water Resources Chemical Engineering Metallurgical Engineering 7 SRRank 2018 NA NA NA NA NA 301-400 151-200 301-400 101-150 201-300 201-300 401-500 301-400 201-300 151-200 301-400 NA 401-500 301-400 NA 151-200 39 201-300 201-300 301-400 201-300 301-400 151-200 201-300 101-150 28 201-300 151-200 151-200 NA NA XRank 2019 NA NA NA NA NA 246 NA 271 297 NA 405 NA NA 396 NA NA 297 426 302 135 246 39 95 NA 66 260 264 132 429 87 30 286 75 NA NA 118 SRRank 2019 NA NA NA NA NA 301-400 NA 401-500 301-400 NA 301-400 NA NA 301-400 NA NA 201-300 401-500 401-500 101-150 201-300 49 201-300 NA 301-400 201-300 301-400 201-300 201-300 151-200 28 151-200 201-300 NA NA 101-150 XRank 2020 202 193 235 468 400 212 NA 407 310 NA 306 NA NA NA NA NA NA 411 405 154 215 NA 108 NA 92 146 267 216 374 90 36 273 225 NA 358 139 SRRank 2020 201-300 201-300 201-300 401-500 301-400 301-400 NA 401-500 401-500 NA 301-400 NA NA NA NA NA NA 401-500 401-500 151-200 201-300 NA 301-400 NA 301-400 201-300 301-400 201-300 201-300 201-300 36 201-300 201-300 NA 401-500 101-150 Table 2. The engineering subjects in which Indian universities have been ranked by SRC (contd.). Institution Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati XRank 2018 217 429 55 NA 49 NA 25 192 NA 248 272 362 122 442 109 75 363 NA NA 274 165 81 262 255 390 426 82 331 215 386 98 324 81 430 437 168 379 Subject Chemical Engineering Electrical & Electronics Engineering Mining & Mineral Engineering Telecommunication Engineering Automation & Control Biotechnology Chemical Engineering Civil Engineering Computer Science & Engineering Electrical & Electronics Engineering Energy Science & Engineering Environmental Science & Engineering Instruments Science & Technology Materials Science & Engineering Mechanical Engineering Metallurgical Engineering Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Telecommunication Engineering Automation & Control Biotechnology Chemical Engineering Civil Engineering Computer Science & Engineering Electrical & Electronics Engineering Energy Science & Engineering Environmental Science & Engineering Instruments Science & Technology Materials Science & Engineering Mechanical Engineering Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Telecommunication Engineering Biotechnology Chemical Engineering Electrical & Electronics Engineering Energy Science & Engineering Mechanical Engineering Nanoscience & Nanotechnology 8 SRRank 2018 301-400 401-500 51-75 NA 76-100 NA 151-200 201-300 NA 201-300 301-400 401-500 101-150 401-500 151-200 101-150 301-400 NA NA 301-400 201-300 151-200 301-400 151-200 301-400 401-500 151-200 301-400 151-200 301-400 101-150 401-500 151-200 401-500 401-500 201-300 301-400 XRank 2019 228 377 53 298 61 NA 25 197 NA 326 268 NA 80 482 114 68 380 NA NA 283 144 98 177 264 431 NA 39 NA 233 396 148 272 85 NA NA 174 NA SRRank 2019 301-400 401-500 51-75 201-300 101-150 NA 151-200 201-300 NA 301-400 301-400 NA 151-200 401-500 151-200 76-100 301-400 NA NA 301-400 201-300 201-300 201-300 151-200 301-400 NA 151-200 NA 151-200 301-400 151-200 401-500 151-200 NA NA 201-300 NA XRank 2020 230 NA 32 NA 50 436 33 106 378 432 240 NA 217 NA 119 74 NA 226 194 318 174 142 78 243 350 NA 159 NA 265 NA 227 319 85 NA 351 225 NA SRRank 2020 401-500 NA 76-100 NA 101-150 401-500 201-300 201-300 401-500 401-500 201-300 NA 201-300 NA 101-150 101-150 NA 201-300 151-200 301-400 201-300 201-300 201-300 201-300 301-400 NA 151-200 NA 201-300 NA 201-300 301-400 201-300 NA 301-400 301-400 NA Table 2. The engineering subjects in which Indian universities have been ranked by SRC (contd.). Institution Indian Institute of Technology Indore Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur XRank 2018 NA NA 37 NA 228 438 322 103 96 387 NA 166 177 65 250 444 348 355 428 123 NA 394 142 86 38 365 174 117 NA 56 89 158 231 391 169 NA 443 76 45 378 126 179 Subject Electrical & Electronics Engineering Mechanical Engineering Chemical Engineering Computer Science & Engineering Electrical & Electronics Engineering Energy Science & Engineering Materials Science & Engineering Mechanical Engineering Metallurgical Engineering Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Telecommunication Engineering Automation & Control Biotechnology Chemical Engineering Civil Engineering Computer Science & Engineering Electrical & Electronics Engineering Energy Science & Engineering Environmental Science & Engineering Instruments Science & Technology Marine & Ocean Engineering Materials Science & Engineering Mechanical Engineering Metallurgical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Madras Mining & Mineral Engineering Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Telecommunication Engineering Water Resources Biotechnology Chemical Engineering Civil Engineering Computer Science & Engineering Electrical & Electronics Engineering Energy Science & Engineering Instruments Science & Technology Marine & Ocean Engineering Materials Science & Engineering Mechanical Engineering Metallurgical Engineering Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Telecommunication Engineering Transportation Science & Technology 9 SRRank 2018 NA NA 201-300 NA 201-300 401-500 301-400 101-150 101-150 301-400 NA 151-200 301-400 101-150 201-300 301-400 301-400 301-400 401-500 201-300 NA 301-400 76-100 76-100 51-75 301-400 151-200 101-150 NA 101-150 151-200 401-500 201-300 301-400 201-300 NA 401-500 51-75 51-75 301-400 151-200 151-200 XRank 2019 494 NA 42 NA 242 NA NA 100 98 NA 231 NA 204 91 249 427 309 399 NA 83 NA 431 144 84 46 384 200 115 344 90 142 NA 237 430 74 38 423 56 54 383 170 NA SRRank 2019 401-500 NA 201-300 NA 201-300 NA NA 151-200 101-150 NA 201-300 NA 301-400 151-200 201-300 301-400 401-500 401-500 NA 201-300 NA 301-400 101-150 76-100 76-100 301-400 151-200 101-150 401-500 151-200 201-300 NA 301-400 401-500 201-300 37 301-400 51-75 51-75 301-400 201-300 NA XRank 2020 NA 301 48 14 211 352 NA 99 101 NA 228 NA 320 119 NA 431 433 270 NA 218 6 409 152 87 55 NA 229 88 437 50 147 NA 215 353 160 16 435 62 68 NA NA NA SRRank 2020 NA 301-400 301-400 401-500 301-400 301-400 NA 201-300 101-150 NA 201-300 NA 301-400 201-300 NA 301-400 401-500 301-400 NA 201-300 26 301-400 101-150 101-150 51-75 NA 201-300 151-200 401-500 201-300 201-300 NA 301-400 301-400 151-200 41 401-500 76-100 51-75 NA NA NA Table 2. The engineering subjects in which Indian universities have been ranked by SRC (contd.). Institution Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee Indian Statistical Institute Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai Jadavpur University Jawaharlal Nehru University National Institute of Technology Rourkela National Institute Technology Tiruchirappalli Panjab University Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology Shivaji University Thapar University University of Calcutta University of Delhi Vellore Institute of Technology NA NA Subject Chemical Engineering Civil Engineering Electrical & Electronics Engineering Energy Science & Engineering Environmental Science & Engineering Instruments Science & Technology Materials Science & Engineering Mechanical Engineering Metallurgical Engineering Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Water Resources Computer Science & Engineering Chemical Engineering Automation & Control Chemical Engineering Computer Science & Engineering Electrical & Electronics Engineering Energy Science & Engineering Instruments Science & Technology Mechanical Engineering Biotechnology Electrical & Electronics Engineering Mechanical Engineering Chemical Engineering Mechanical Engineering Instruments Science & Technology Chemical Engineering Materials Science & Engineering Chemical Engineering Computer Science & Engineering Electrical & Electronics Engineering Mechanical Engineering Telecommunication Engineering Chemical Engineering Biotechnology Chemical Engineering Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Chemical Engineering Energy Science & Engineering Mechanical Engineering Telecommunication Engineering Biomedical Engineering Remote Sensing 10 XRank 2018 210 223 431 349 492 NA 444 251 NA 392 164 484 SRRank 2018 151-200 201-300 401-500 301-400 401-500 NA 401-500 151-200 NA 301-400 151-200 401-500 XRank 2019 174 228 335 392 NA 31 NA 297 NA NA 182 490 SRRank 2019 151-200 201-300 401-500 401-500 NA 76-100 NA 201-300 NA NA 151-200 401-500 XRank 2020 122 NA NA 304 NA 80 NA 318 174 NA NA 450 SRRank 2020 201-300 NA NA 301-400 NA 76-100 NA 201-300 151-200 NA NA 401-500 43 190 177 486 437 441 84 244 449 449 NA 209 NA NA 76-100 151-200 301-400 401-500 401-500 401-500 151-200 201-300 401-500 401-500 NA 301-400 NA NA 55 199 186 491 NA NA 44 240 442 NA 368 306 363 NA 101-150 151-200 401-500 401-500 NA NA 151-200 301-400 401-500 NA 301-400 401-500 301-400 NA 45 NA NA 366 NA NA 109 215 440 NA 368 215 NA 116 201-300 NA NA 401-500 NA NA 101-150 301-400 401-500 NA 301-400 401-500 NA 101-150 215 466 412 493 463 NA NA 406 338 NA 390 262 NA NA NA NA NA 401-500 401-500 401-500 401-500 401-500 NA NA 401-500 301-400 NA 301-400 301-400 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA 442 483 404 386 271 NA 404 NA NA 360 NA 381 NA NA NA NA NA 401-500 301-400 401-500 301-400 201-300 NA 301-400 NA NA 401-500 NA 301-400 NA NA NA NA NA NA 97 462 NA 266 NA 482 354 NA 336 396 NA 292 NA NA NA NA NA 301-400 401-500 NA 201-300 NA 401-500 401-500 NA 401-500 301-400 NA 201-300 NA NA