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DU VC credits the hard work of predecessors for boosting NIRF rankings

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Delhi University vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh thanked his predecessors for their hard work after the varsity saw a marginal improvement in the National Institutional Ranking Framework. This year the university gained two spots to secure the 11th position in the Union Ministry of Education-adopted ranking methodology. The varsity's status has risen in the entire rankings by a spot.

According to the eighth edition of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) announced by Union Minister of State for Education Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, the University of Delhi (DU) is ranked after the city-based Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), which have retained the second and third positions, respectively, under the university category. The university, which was ranked 13th in the university category last year, secured the 12th position in 2021. It was ranked 11th in 2020, 13th in 2019 and seventh in 2018.

"The rankings have been finalized on the basis of data from three years – 2019, 2020 and 2021. The improvement in rankings has been possible due to the hard work of my predecessors. I am thankful to them. We are working to improve the rankings and our work show in the next few years," Singh told.

Last year, Singh had said that a low student-teacher ratio could be one of the reasons for the varsity slipping in the rankings. "We are working to improve the teacher-student ratio and recruitment is being carried out," he said. The NIRF took into account the number of research articles published and citations received by publications in the span of 2019, 2020 and 2021.

The rankings have been carried out in various categories like overall, universities, colleges and research institutions among others. The NIRF provides for ranking of institutions in five broad generic groups of parameters namely, teaching, learning and resources (TLR), research and professional practice (RP), graduation outcome (GO), outreach and inclusivity (OI) and perception (PR).

DU has witnessed an improvement in all these parameters, barring perception this time. In 2022, it scored 43.1 in TLR, which has increased to 51.89. In terms of GO, the score has increased to 97.84 as opposed to 91.86 last year. The varsity also saw a minor decline. In PR its score has declined from 56.15 in 2022 to 51.89 this year.

Meanwhile, the RP and OI stood at 54.31 and 63.98 this year, respectively, against last year's scores of 52.82 and 58.87. Five DU colleges have also been placed among the top 10 colleges in the rankings with Miranda House bagging the top spot for the seventh consecutive year. "We are trying to improve in terms of research outreach and inclusivity. The teaching and non-teaching staff have worked hard for this. The fact is that we do not rest on past laurels. The rankings provide us a way of learning and it goes the same for all colleges. It is definitely a challenging job to maintain rankings. Through the rankings, the government is also providing guidance to us," said Miranda House principal Bijayalakshmi Nanda.

Having secured a place among the top 10 colleges in the country category, DU's Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College (ARSD) was ranked above Lady Shri Ram College and Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC). "We have scored 80 out of 100 in research and professional practice, which is the highest among all DU colleges. I thank all the faculty members. They are doing quality research and it is being published in science journals," ARSD principal Gyantosh Jha.

"Even in terms of graduation outcomes, our students are doing well. We are showing 100 per cent results in terms of placements and our students are going to renowned universities for higher education. In terms of perception, we have improved from a score of 24 to coming close to 40. Had we scored a point more in perception, we would have been at the third spot," he added.

In the overall ranking, DU has climbed to the 22nd rank. In 2021, it was ranked 19th, while in 2020 and 2019, it secured the 18th and 20th rank, respectively. The varsity bagged the 14th rank in 2018. Among the top colleges, the Miranda House and the Hindu College have retained their rankings by bagging the top two spots whereas Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, which secured the seventh position last year, has climbed a spot up.

Meanwhile, Kirori Mal College (KMC) and Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR) have shared the ninth spot. Last year, LSR secured the fifth spot while KMC stood at 10th place. "They have the same scores. Since it's a tie, both of them are given the same rank, and the next rank is 11th (rank 10th is not assigned to any institute) as per standard practice," a senior ministry official said. As for the other well-known DU colleges, the SRCC has bagged the 11th spot while Hans Raj College, Sri Venkateswara College and St Stephen's have bagged the 12th, 13th and 14th spots, respectively.