President orders universities to take rankings seriously

President Pranab Mukherjee last week pulled up the country’s universities for their failure in making it to the list of the world’s top 200 higher education institutions, saying it was due to their “casual approach” towards international rankings, reports the Deccan Herald.

“Is it possible to become a world power without a single world-class university? In two reputed international rankings of universities, there is not a single entry from India against the top 200 places. I refuse to believe that despite having the second largest higher education system in the world, with over 700 universities and 36,000 colleges, we do not have even one truly outstanding institution. The fault lies in our casual approach. The rankings process should be taken seriously,” he said.

The president was addressing students and faculty of the country’s higher education institutions through video-conferencing from the Rashtrapati Bhavan. He asked the universities to take “concrete action” to present their credentials before the international ranking agencies.
Full report on the Deccan Herald site