Outlook has been the preferred magazine of 1.5 million readers in India today, andis said to sellmore than 11.2 million copies over the year. The survey by Outlook (http://www.outlookindia.com/) magazine dated 30 June 2008 hitting the stands gives 60 per cent weightage to the objective parameters, which are based on data provided by the institutes being surveyed and 40 per cent weightage to the perceptual parameters which capture what educationists, industry professionals and aspirants feel about the institute in question.

In addition to putting the survey questionnaires in their website, to ensure that many institutes got a fair chance of representation, Outlook had sent the structured questionnaires to a list of 1,456 engineering colleges across the country approved by an expert panel. The perceptual survey was conducted among senior faculty members (35%), industry experts (35%) and aspiring students (30%). For the first two categories, respondents had minimum work experience of five and three years, respectively.

The Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani got a score of 1464 out of a maximum of 2150 points. For the Intellectual Capital aspect BITS got 364 out of 600, Industry Interface 191 out of 300, Infrastructure 435.80 out of 650, Placement Performance 302.20 out of 400 and Pedagogic System 171 out of 200. Following BITS, the second rank went to an institution with a score of 1201 putting BITS Pilani way ahead of others in this category (http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080630&fname=ALead+Essay&sid=3)

If one looks at a merged list of Government and Non Government Institutions, BITS Pilani fits in the sixth rank reiterating the fact that BITS Pilani has all along been one among the top ranking universities in India yesterday as well as India today.

Having found BITS Pilani one among the top ranking institutions, many have wondered as to why they did not find BITS Pilani in India Today rankings of Best Colleges for the years 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 as well as Dataquest T School survey for the year 2008.

Generally magazines carrying out such surveys do not have the habit or responsibility of listing key institutions which were not part of the survey for what so ever reason it may be. This becomes all the more important when such institutions are names to reckon with and when such institutions have figured right among the top of such magazine surveys in the past years.

The Outlook magazine has certainly earned respect and admiration from the public at large when they decided to put such key institutions which did not participate in the survey below the table with final rankings. Other magazines which do such surveys and claim that their rankings have become the benchmark for academic standards in India today have inded something to learn from the Outlook Practice.

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Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani Rajasthan which has set the industry university collaboration bench mark as well as having the reputation of pioneering the online examinations for admissions in India today through the path breaking BITSAT offers degrees in various disciplines presently at Pilani, Dubai, Goa campuses and in the short future at Hyderabad campus apart from an array of work integrated learning programmes for HRD of a vast spectrum of Indian corporates. The alumni of the Institute are spread across the globe from Australia to America.