Panjab University is No. 1 in India
Panjab University (PU) has been reaffirmed as number one in the country in the Times Higher Education ranking for Asia announced on Wednesday. In the Times Higher Education Asia University Ranking-2014.
Panjab University (PU) has been reaffirmed as number one in the country in the Times Higher Education ranking for Asia announced on Wednesday.
In the Times Higher Education Asia University Ranking-2014, PU leaves behind nine institutes of the country, including six Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi, and bagged the first position. Among the Asian institutes, PU ranked 32 and had participated in the ranking for the first time.
PU had surprised many last year when it was ranked number one in the country in the World University Rankings 2013-14 by the Times Higher Education announced in October.
Reacting to the development, PU vice-chancellor AK Grover said it was great that PU was able to maintain its position. The ranking would help the university make a case for meeting its budget deficit. The university has a budget deficit of nearly Rs 200 crore.
HOW PU SCORED OVER IITs
Times Higher Education Asia University Ranking-2014 used similar methodology to access the institutes as was done previously. The institutes were ranked on the parameters of teaching (learning environment) with 30% score, research (volume, income and reputation) 30%, citations (research influence) 30%, industry income (innovation and participation with industry) 2.5% and inter national outlook (staff, students and research) 7.5% of total score.
The process of ranking an institute is a mix of data provided by the institute and other forums, its reputation among peers and grants provided by the government to fund projects of the institute are also taken into consideration. However, details as to what contributed to the score of a particular institute are yet to be announced.
PU officials said the citation parameter which included 30% of total score might have done the trick for the institute this time as well. Citation impact score of some streams of PU was even better than many top institutes of the world in 2013 ranking. It had scored 96% in physical sciences, 89% in arts and humanities and 86% in engineering and technology in the 2013 rankings.
Citation is the score of number of times a research paper is cited by peers in their researches globally.
Among others, IIT Kharagpur which ranked number one in the country in last year’s Asia rankings has slipped to number two. Jadavpur University (Kolkata) ranked 8 and is ahead of Aligarh Muslim University (Uttar Pradesh) and JNU.
WHAT IS TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION RANKING
Times Higher Education (THE) is a weekly magazine based in London, re por ting specifically on issues related to higher education. It is the United Kingdom’s leading publication in the field and is known for publishing annual THE Rankings since 2004. In 2009, THE broke up with Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) and tied up with Thomson Reuters for data support.