Panjab University slips in world university rankings

Panjab University slips in world university rankings and placed at number 551st among world universities and ranked 3rd among Indian Institutions.

Facts :

• Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh, has slipped by 38 positions in the US News Best Global University Rankings-2019 and is placed at 551st position.
• In 2018 edition, it was at 513th place. However, at national-level, PU is at number 3.
• In the 2018 edition of the rankings, PU was at number 2 in the country and in 2017 edition, it was the top institution.
• In the 2019 edition, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, topped the country with 46.5 marks, followed by the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, with 46.1 marks and PU with 44.5 marks.
• There were 13 indicators for calculating the rank. Global research reputation and regional research reputation have 12.5% marks each. Publication has 10% marks, while books and conferences have 2.5% each.
• The normalised citation impact has 10% marks, total citations have 7.5 % contribution, number of publications that are among the 10% most cited has 12.5% marks and the percentage of total publications that are among the 10% most cited has 10% contribution.
• The international collaboration, percentage of total publications with international collaboration, number of highly cited papers that are among the top 1% most cited in their respective field and percentage of total publications that are among the top 1% most highly cited papers have 5% marks each.
• PU stands heads and shoulders above other institutions when it comes to research achievements. This particular ranking which gives value to research and underplays the entirely subjective views about a university, results in PU getting a higher rank.
   

Physics dept best in country :

• The department of physics, PU, is numero uno among Indian institutions and ranks 187 globally, leaving behind top rankers like IISc, Bangalore, and IIT, Bombay.
• Despite a fall in overall rankings, physics department of PU retained its top slot in the country in the 2019 edition of rankings.
• In the subject category of physics, PU has scored 62.8 marks, followed by IIT-Bombay with 58.1 marks and IISc-Bengaluru with 51.8 marks.
• The University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, with 50.7 marks and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata, with 50.2 marks have come at the 4th and 5th places, respectively.

Reasons for decline in ranking of Indian Universities :

• Indian institutes were lagging behind in research funding and citations and also on internationalisation front. Most of premier institutes in India cater to one particular stream such as engineering or management etc. which reduces volume and variety of research.
• Government policy strictly limits number of students from abroad who can study in India and prevents international scholars from being hired into long-term faculty positions.
• If India desires to feature at a larger scale in these rankings, Indian Universities along with Indian education system need urgent revamp and there need to focus more on research, research funding and internationalization of Indian campuses.

World University Rankings :

• These rankings are only global performance tables that judge research-intensive universities across all their core missions viz. teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.
• The thirteen point performance indicators calculating rankings are grouped in five areas: Teachings (learning environment; 30% weight), Research (volume, income and reputation; 30%), Citations (research influence; 30%), International outlook (staff, students and research; 7.5%) and Industry income (knowledge transfer; 2.5%).
• Universities that do not teach undergraduates or those whose research output amounted to fewer than 1000 articles between 2012 and 2016, were excluded from the rankings.

By: Harman Sandhu