The Times Higher Education (THE) has today (December 10) released its ‘Online Learning Rankings 2024’ for the first time. The organization has been classified into three categories namely gold, silver and bronze. ‘Universities have different reasons and objectives for online learning and this makes it difficult to provide accurate rankings,’ The Explained.
There are three universities in the US, two in the UK, two in India and one each in Russia, Hungary, New Zealand and Australia in the gold category. 14 universities are silver and 31 are bronze.
For India, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies and OP Jindal Global University have secured two places in the gold category. Shulini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences is the only Indian university to achieve ‘Silver’ rank.
A total of four Indian universities have been ranked in the bronze category: Amity University (Noida), KL University, Lovely Professional University (LPU), and Manipal University (Jaipur). Dr DY Patil Vidyapith, Pune and GLA University are listed in ‘Reporter’ category – A total of 64 universities have been given ‘Reporter status’ as they submitted data but did not fulfill the full entry requirements.
It should be noted that there is no universal agreement on the definition of online education. The This pilot ranking measures only the portion of universities that offer online learning, meaning that courses are advertised as “online” and that at least 40 percent of content is delivered online.
In this pilot version, The 17 metrics were used grouped into four pillars: resources, which measure staff and resources dedicated to online learning; Engagement, which includes six metrics including student survey responses to compare levels of student engagement; outcomes, which measure student progress and whether they recommend others; and environment, which tracks inclusion, diversity and support levels.
The US’s University of Central Florida (Gold) is top globally for resources, while New Zealand’s Massey University (Gold) receives the highest scores for both engagement and environment. Ukraine’s Sumy State University won the silver medal but received the highest score globally for the results. Among the gold winners, India’s OP Jindal Global University achieved the best result.
The official note also claims that the most consistent performer in the gold category is India’s Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies; It is the only university to score above 60 out of 100 in all four pillars.