PUNE: The ranking of Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings has fallen into the group of 601-800 ranking this time. The rankings were declared on Friday.
Last year, SPPU had secured a position in the group of 501-600 rankings. Almost 1,400 universities across 92 countries are ranked by THE every year.
The universities were evaluated on four parameters, which include the number of full time enrolled (FTE) students, number of students per staff, international staff, and female and male ratio on campus. Teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook of the universities were also considered.
The University of Oxford has secured the first rank followed by California Institute of Technology in the second position and the University of Cambridge on the third rank.
“The graph always has ups and downs. I don’t consider it a major setback for us. Last year, we were in 595th position, and now we have moved to 620th rank. We have been producing an equal amount of qualitative work in terms of imparting education, research, etc, like last year. To publish a research paper, it takes one and a half years. There has not been much increase in research publication,” said SPPU Vice-Chancellor Nitin Karmalkar.
He added that faculty deficiency has been one of the major concerns affecting the rankings. “No faculty recruitments have taken place in the past few years. There are faculty members, who are retiring each year. We are trying to retain them as guest faculty or professor emeritus to balance the teacher, student ratio in the university,” said Karmalkar.
“Similarly, to publish research papers too, we need a good strength of faculty members. We are coping with these difficulties, therefore, I won’t say our performance has dropped in any way,” he said.
Around 53 universities across the country have found a place in THE world university ranking.
However, this year, overall Indian university rankings have dropped. None of the Indian-based higher educational institutes have made it within the first 300 rankings. The Indian Institute of Science has also lost its position in the 251-300 group, dropping to the 301-350 group. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar, has also been ranked in 301-350 group, whereas IIT Indore has secured rank in 351-400 group. Mumbai University has secured rank in the 1,000 and above group.
“Although the UGC has been introducing several provisions and instructing to strengthen the number of faculty members and improve the quality of education at higher educational institutes, we must see how much has been promoted and implemented on state-level,” said Karmalkar.
