International Ranking of SPPU Drops, Varsity Officials Blame Wrong Data
- SPPU claimed that the varsity did not participate actively in the rankings, and the data quoted in the rankings was wrong and points to an error of judgment.
- The varsity will carry out a detailed study on the assessment methodologies of the rankings.
As per the recently released QS World University Rankings, Savitribai Phule Pune University has received a setback. Last year, the varsity ranked 700-800th position among the top universities in the world. However, this year, the varsity is ranked between 800 – 1000th positions. On the other hand, the officials of SPPU claimed that the varsity did not participate actively in the rankings, and the data quoted in the rankings was wrong and points to an error of judgment.
SPPU has been participating in Times Higher Education World Rankings for the past two years. In the last two years, the performance of the varsity was good, and it was ranked between 600 – 800 among the universities across the world. The officials of SPPU send data for rankings every year. However, the data for the QS World University Rankings is collected from various sources that are unknown to the varsity.
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One of the officials of the varsity pointed that the varsity does not participate in the ranking exercise, and the rankings authority does not consider the data sent by the varsity. Therefore, the rankings authority ended up in picking the wrong data. Since the authenticity of data is not clear, there is no point of questioning the performance of the varsity in the rankings. The present and former Vice-Chancellor of SPPU clarified that the varsity never took part in the ranking exercise.
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On the other hand, the ranking authority has ranked the University of Pune, and the name of the varsity was changed to SPPU many years ago. It is quite clear that the data collected by the ranking authority from unknown sources is not correct. The data quoted in the ranking exercise does not have facts and reflect the strength of the varsity.
Dean of Faculty of Commerce and Management of SPPU claimed that they would respect the ranking exercise, and carry out a detailed study on the assessment methodologies of ranking exercise for appropriate action. He further clarified that the drop in rankings does not mean a decline in quality. There is a need to study the methodologies of rankings for better analysis of current strategy.
He also indicated that there are different methodologies for each ranking, and most of them are not perfect. If the same methodology is followed every year by the same international ranking or survey, there is a need to study the methodology and figure out the change in rating, he added.
From the above explanation, it is quite evident that the data quoted by ranking has some errors.