By Ananya S Guha
The Ministry of Human Resource Development has perhaps for the first time come out with a list of the top ranking universities/professional institutes in the country. Well it deserves kudos for taking such a plunge because erstwhile Ministries were silent on any assessment, excepting coming out sporadically on some ‘ Centres Of Excellence’. In the meanwhile, of course, private agencies are consistently doing rankings of colleges, universities and technical institutions. The trenchant irony one may point out here is that JNU & the University of Hyderabad, have been ranked third and fourth- ironic because of the students’ controversy raging in these universities. But that is the crux; that controversies have been left aside and universities have been appraised on basis of quality and research. That drives home the point that the assessment has been impartial. It also drives home the point that the attacks against both of them, especially the former that it is a hunting ground of activities other than academic are perhaps unjustified. This persisting baiting must have riled both teachers and students alike leading to a climax and series of incidents, which are now well known. But one must be happy that the rating has come at the right time to allay doubts about the academic credentials of these universities. It goes to the credit of the MHRD that it has maintained a dispassionate stance in the ratings. Also the fifth place going to an University in the North East part of the country is a recognition of hard work done in semi rural areas.
This also is a pointer to the numerous ratings been done every year by privately enlisted agencies. The parameters vary from agency to agency and so the rankings differ. But a government agency taking the bull by its horns and then doing an assessment based on clear cut criteria is laudable, because the players here are private universities as well as public universities. One of the criteria singled out is notable and interesting: students from other states seeking admission in that university. That is an indicator of the quality of that university as well as popularity, in terms of faculty and departments/ schools, courses offered etc. Tezpur university right from its inception has been introducing professional and research oriented academic programmes as its focal point. For example the Department of English is merged with Foreign Languages studies, which is a pointer towards the eclectic nature of the university having also courses on technical sciences and social sciences.
Thirdly although such ratings are ostensibly performance oriented there is an issue here of comparing state government universities to those of central government universities. The latter are obviously heavily subsidized with more allocation and funding towards research, whereas the former are more often than not crippled for want of funds. The Vice Chancellor of Guwahati University lamented on this aspect although the university was decently ranked at 22nd.
It is good that the Ministry has taken this bold decision to rank universities. It should give a fillip to universities to act further, improvise their surroundings and introduce innovative courses, research and training. But the best part of the decision was the faith it put on the Jawaharlal Nehru University and the University of Hyderabad as centres of excellence, an age old reputation matched with good research and teaching, shrugging off controversy. That in itself is intrepid. This should dispel all the warped notions that the doubting Thomases have and a shot in the arm for these Institutions, amidst such controversy mired situationa. Much has been talked about Indian Universities not finding a place among the top 100 rankings in the world. The point is that it is unfair to compare universities in countries where research facilities are poor, where there is not adequate funding for research work and where research projects among science subjects are teacher driven rather than sharing resources with the student or students. Again centrally funded universities as pointed out earlier, get more funds as compared to state government universities which at times face acute financial crunch, not even being able to pay salaries to teachers. Some years back there was an instance in one of the Universities of North East India, where the Vice Chancellor refused to work because of paucity of funds. And his point of view was sympathetically taken by many.
Indian universities have bright students, but in the international arena they cannot cross rankings below 300 or 200. Of course to many the entire issue of rating is debatable, as some universities could excel in certain disciplines, specialized or general. But the collective spirit of an university visa vis teacher and taught, research facilities, innovative disciplines, publications of teachers, their impact on scholarly publications, all these must and should count. It is against this background that universities like JNU in the national context hold their own; not compromising on quality of both teachers and students, and allowing meritorious poor students to study at affordable cost. It is unfortunately that such an university has been enmeshed in controversy and issues which are unabashedly and shamelessly politicised.