PU slips to 201-250 bracket

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 23

In the QS BRICS Rankings 2018, Panjab University (PU) has fallen to bracket of 201-250. In India, it is ranked at 50. In the previous year’s edition, PU was in the bracket of 151-200 while it was ranked 25th in the country.

In QS BRICS Rankings 2016, the university was again in the 151-200 bracket but its India rank was 30th.

QS BRICS University Rankings is calculated for five BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Eight indicators are used for calculating rankings. The academic reputation has 30 per cent marks, employer reputation 20 per cent, faculty-student ratio 20 per cent, staff with PhD 10 per cent, papers per faculty 10 per cent, citations per paper at 5 per cent, international faculty 2.5 per cent and the international students have 2.5 per cent.

Scopus database is used for research papers.

In QS BRICS Rankings 2018, the PU has scored 32.7 in academic reputation, 32.1 in faculty staff with PhD, 38.1 in papers per faculty and 44.4 in citations per paper. It has not been given marks for the rest of the parameters.

Among Indian institutions in the overall BRICS Rankings 2018, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay is 6th, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is 10th, Delhi IIT is 17th, IIT Madras is 18th, Kanpur IIT is 21st, Kharagpur IIT is 24th, University of Delhi is 41st and Roorkee IIT is at the 51st spot.

“The QS Rankings are the most opaque. It is not clear how they have calculated the academic reputation and employer reputation. It doesn’t make any difference to me. Their criteria are wrong. Banaras Hindu University (BHU) is ranked lower than Thapar University, Patiala. Dr Harisingh Gour University, Sagar, is ranked 23rd in the country,” said Prof M Rajivlochan, director, Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC). Prof Rajesh Gill, president, Panjab University Teachers’ Association (PUTA), said: “It is worrisome that we are going down in all rankings for the past three-four years. The way things are happening, we need to introspect. We have to check both quality and quantity of research.”

Indicators for rankings

Eight indicators are used for calculating rankings. The academic reputation has 30 per cent marks, employer reputation 20 per cent, faculty-student ratio 20 per cent, staff with PhD 10 per cent, papers per faculty 10 per cent, citations per paper at 5 per cent, international faculty 2.5 per cent and the international students have 2.5 per cent.

Other varsities

• Thapar University, Patiala, is at 137th rank in the overall BRICS Rankings 2018 and 26th in the country. It has scored 32.6 in employer reputation, 27.7 in faculty-student ratio, 13 in international faculty, 57.7 in faculty staff with PhD, 67.5 in papers per faculty and 41.2 in citations per paper. The university was not evaluated in previous editions.
• University of Kashmir, Srinagar, is ranked 150 in the QS BRICS Rankings 2018 while in the previous year, it was 151. It is at the 32nd rank in the country in the 2018 edition of rankings. It has scored 77.7 in faculty-student ratio, 80.8 in faculty with PhD and 26.2 in papers per faculty.
• Kurukshetra University is in the bracket of 251-300. It is included for the first time. In India, its rank is 59th. It has 59.6 marks for faculty staff with PhD, 29.7 marks in papers per faculty and 32.7 in citations per paper.