Divya Sharma
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, June 3
Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) has improved its H-index in the recent years. It has jumped from 63 in 2017 to 79 in 2018 and 97 at present.
The H-index reflects on quality of research and citations of a university. It is based on number of journals published along with equal number of citations. The Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) of the GNDU uses scientific search engines, like Scopus, to keep a check on research quality. State-of-the-art facilities in emerging areas of sciences have also played a role in improving the index.
Prof Renu Bhardwaj, Director, Internal Quality Assurance Cell, GNDU, said, “We have improved significantly. We are ahead of some of the universities in the region, such as Punjabi University, Himachal Pradesh University, Kurukshetra University and others. There has been a massive improvement in the last two years. Soon, the index will touch 100.”
The key factors include infrastructural upgrade, state-of-the-art instruments and other facilities for faculty among others. “There have been efforts to enhance the infrastructure and research quality. Faculty members go abroad as part of their research,” she said.
Narprinder Singh, Director, Research, GNDU, said, “We have encouraged our faculty for research endeavours. Grants have been used to promote research. H-index plays a major role in fetching us good grants. It is a key element.”