University of Hyderabad stands 13th in Indian varsities

Hyderabad: The University of Hyderabad, in the news for all wrong reasons for the last two months following the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula, appears to have slid in the university rankings within India.

A survey carried out by the US News and World Report has placed the UoH at 13 among the 14 Indian institutions. The list places the UoH behind three other Central universities: Aligarh Muslim University at 7 and Delhi University at 9 and Banaras Hindu University at 10. Among the six universities in the list, the UoH figures last. This is a comedown for the UoH which generally figures among the top 10 Indian universities. In January last year, UoH won the Visitor’s Award for the best Central University from the President.

IISc top ranker, 6 IITs on the list
The list of university rankings within India is topped by the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru and Punjab University is ranked second. Asked about the rankings, UoH incharge vice-chancellor Prof. M. Perisamy told this newspaper that the university should have been ranked higher.

Panjab University and Aligarh Muslim University were placed higher than UoH because they have affiliated colleges, he said. “As far as research studies are concerned, UoH is regarded as the best in the country,” Prof. Perisamy said. Students JAC convener Venkatesh Chouhan said UoH was a role model to the country.

IITs took six spots on the US News and World Report list: Bombay at 3, Delhi 4, Madras 5, Kanpur 7, Kharagpur 8 and Roorkee at 12. The Aligarh Muslim University is ranked 7, University of Delhi 10, Jadavpur University 11 and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, 14.

The rankings were based on 12 indicators: Global research reputation, regional research reputation, publications, books, conferences, normalised citation impact, total citations, percentage of total publications that are among the 10 per cent most cited, international collaboration and number of PhDs awarded.