Moa Jamir
The ranking of the Nagaland University (NU) has been slipping in the annual National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking during the last three years, The Morung Express highlighted on September 9, after the release of the latest ‘India Rankings 2021.’
Constituted on September 29, 2015, the NIRF has been releasing the ranking of institutions in India since 2016 based on categories such as Overall, University, College etc as well as by subjects viz. Engineering, Management, Medical, Law and so on.
As noted, after its best performance in 2018 when the sole central university in the State was slotted at 95th position, the NU’s ranking has been floundering, sliding from 101-150 band in 2019 and 2020, to 151-200 band in 2021.
Two things can be inferred from here: either NU’s quality is deteriorating or the others are improving much faster on the parameters used for the ranking. Both inferences do not reflect well on the University.
According to the NIRF, five broad parameters are used to arrive at the overall ranking - Teaching, Learning & Resources (TLR); Research and Professional Practice (RP); Graduation Outcomes (GA); Outreach and Inclusivity (OI); and Perception (P).
Out of the five, TLR and RP with the ranking weight of 0.30 respectively, are the most important determiner of the overall ranking. The TLR includes sub-parameters such as student strength including doctoral students (SS), Faculty-student ratio with emphasis on permanent faculty (FSR), financial resources and their utilisation (FRU), online education and so on.
The NU’s data submitted for NIRF 2021 indicated that the strength of students, as well as faculty, are comparable with others while it seems to have scored well in FRU, though there was no expenditure on engineering workshops in the last three years. The transition to higher education was also respectable, though the University placement records were low. Thus, it is assumed to have scored some points under the TLR.
However, the University ranking must have been most adversely affected by the RP which includes sub-parameters like combined metric for publications, combined metric for quality of publications, IPR and patents, footprint of projects, and professional practice.
As per its submission, from 2017-19, neither a single patent was published nor granted from the University while it undertook just 2 consultancy projects from 2018-20.
In Outreach and Inclusivity (OI), due to various circumstances, the absence of foreign students, as well as the limited number of students from outside the state, is understandable; however, the University could have compensated the same with better score on other sub-parameters. For instance, the University appeared to have scored zero in terms of admitting economically and socially challenged students (ESCS) and performed lowly on facilities for physically challenged students (PCS) with NU having lifts/ramps in just 60% of its buildings and no specially designed toilets as well as provision for walking aids, including wheelchairs and transportation from one building. Under OI, both ESCS and PCS carried 20 marks each. These are areas that the University should have had sorted by now with any outside intervention.
Surprisingly, on the question of whether the institute had the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) as well as the National Board of Accreditation, the University answered in negative. Information on NU’s website informed that it was ‘Re-accredited with CGPA of 2.58 (B Grade) for five years from July 10, 2014. A quick perusal of the performance top-100 universities informed that many have stated ‘yes’ to the question on NAAC, though their validity had expired when the processes for the NIRF 2021 started in December 2020. Most did not have questions on NBA.
As such, while it denotes a lack of due diligence, the bigger question is why the NU has not been undertaking the next cycle of the NAAC assessment, though its validity expired two years back.
The combinations of both ‘controllable’ and uncontrollable factors are dragging down the NU's ranking in the NIRF. The concerned authority should holistically analyse those factors and adopt both immediate and long-term measures to improve the performance of the State’s lone central university.
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