Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh Vice Chancellor (VC) Prof Arun Kumar Grover today
said that it is no surprise that PU would rank among the top Universities in the BRICS
and Emerging Economies. He also expressed happiness at the PU getting top ranking in the
country.

    Prof Grover was interacting with the media persons after the PU got 13th rank released
by the Times Higher Education (THE) magazine in its BRICS  & Emerging Economies Rankings
2014,  which is the world’s first ranking for Universities in Brazil, Russia, India,
China, South Africa and the 17 other countries of emerging economies. Ten Indian
institutes/Universities had claimed spots in the top 100 places. Besides PU, three other
Universities and six Indian Institutes of Technology found places in top 100
institutions rankings. Jadavpur University got 47th, Aligarh Muslim University got 50th
and Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi got 57th ranks.
    

The Times Higher Education (THE) BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings 2014 has informed
that they had employed the same methodology as the 2013-14 World University Rankings.
They had draw on the world’s largest academic reputation survey involving poll by more
than 10,000 academics in 2013 and almost 60,000 have been involved since 2010. THE
analysed and compared fifty million citations with the world average from the same
field. Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences were placed on an equal footing with
science. Thirteen indicators across five areas were taken into account, making this the
only world rankings to examine all the core missions of the modern global university
like research, teaching, knowledge transfer and international activity.
   

 The indicators of Industry Income – innovation, Teaching – the learning environment,
Citations – research influence, Research – volume, income and reputation, Research –
volume, income and reputation and International Outlook – staff, students and research
were taken into account. For considering these things, Research income from
industry/academic staff, Reputation survey – teaching, Staff-to-student ratio, PhDs
awarded/undergraduate degrees awarded, PhDs awarded/academic staff, Institutional
income/academic staff, Citation impact (normalised average citations per paper),
Reputation survey – research, Research income/academic staff, Scholarly papers/(academic
staff and research staff), International students/total students, International academic
staff/total academic staff and Scholarly papers with one or more international
co-authors/total scholarly papers were taken into account.
    

Prof Grover said that fundamentals of the University are very strong and the future is
also very bright. Stressing for more academic reforms on the pattern of other global
competitors, Prof Grover said that PU should start integrated Masters and Ph.D. programs
under the aegis of Graduate Schools. If we could design our curricula on the top
Universities pattern and provide the same atmosphere, than we can further improve our
rank, which is not a difficult task he added. We should evaluate the strengths of top 30
institutions in the list and what are our weaknesses vis a vis their strengths. First we
have to start doing well among the BRICS and Emerging Economies, only than we can
compete with the Europe, America and North American Universities, he added.
    

Giving an example of Peking University and the Chinese Science Academy, Prof Grover
said that many reputed research institutions like PGI, PEC, CSIO, TBRL, IMTECH, Central
Institutions like National Agriculture - Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI), IISER,
IIT, Nano Science and Technology are placed in our close proximity. “If these
institutions and facilities were made available to the students of PU and they could do
research under co-guidance of those eminent scientists and faculties, PU can also reach
at the top in next five to ten years like Peking University”, he added.  
Prof Grover advocated reforms in the course structure with the active involvement of
students, teachers and industry. He also stressed for honours school system to upgrade
students to Graduate, Post Graduate and Doctoral Levels. He said that job of the
University is to churn out leaders of the society in different walks of life. He acceded
that rankings are important as it give confidence to the students, faculty and the
society as well.
    

Responding to a query, Prof Grover said that PU has a rich heritage and legacy. Besides
the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, the leader of opposition Mrs. Sushma Swaraj,
former Prime Minister Sh. IK Gujral, two Presidents of India, seven ministers of the
Manmohan Singh Cabinet have PU connections. Which University can say they have
contributed presidents of all three Science Academies, which University can say that the
first Higher Education Secretary was their alumnus and they have contributed three UGC
Chairpersons out of total 13, he further added.    

Press Release No.859
VP/SK