PU gets down in Global Ranking

New Delhi, 1 Oct:

Panjab University, India’s top-ranked higher educational institution in the 2014 Times Higher Education Global Rankings, has slipped dramatically by 275 points in the latest tables, ending up in the ranking category of 501-600 as against 226-250 in 2014.

The slip, as recorded in the latest edition of Times Higher Education Global top 800 World University Rankings, comes close on the heels of similar losses of position for the PU in the previous top 100 BRICS and Emerging Economies Rankings and Asia top 100 rankings.

Except for in 2014 when the PU was ranked on top ahead of the 15 IITs, the IISc, Bangalore, has retained the status of the top-ranked Indian institution in major world rankings. “When the PU was ranked on top, it had the highest citation score. That score was based on our high energy research. We regularly participate in large-scale international research collaborations, which have several hundred authors.

Past rankings rated institutions based on such performances.Another reason why the PU lost ranks is that the new scores are based on research projects sourced from Scopus, the largest citation database of peer-reviewed literature, which mainly records science and technology work and not humanities.

Another reason for the slip in PU rankings is the reduction in the number of PhDs being awarded by the university. The VC said he was not surprised at the rankings as the PU was still the second best Indian university after Jadhavpur, a great science and technology institution.