Syed Ali Ahmed| India Tomorrow

NEW DELHI, JUNE 17—Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has written a letter to the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) and Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministry, drawing their attention towards a serious discrepancy in computing the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) data that has resulted in AMU falling to 31^st position in the ranking of the universities in the country in 2020. The AMU has demanded to rectify the error and issue a fresh ranking list.

The ranking of the university is done by the NBA on the basis of the data pertaining to research activities of universities which was used to compute NIRF rankings. It was started in 2015.

The letter has been sent by vice-chancellor Prof. Tariq Mansoor after the ranking list was released about 10 days ago.

It stated that the number of students pursuing full-time PhD were 2911 and part time PhD candidates were 219 till 2017-18 and the number of students having completed PhD under full-time programme was 387 in 2016-17, 312 in 2017-18  and 363 in 2018-19  and their number under part-time programme was 16 in 2016-17, 10 in 2017-18 and 15 in 2018-19.

However, the data uploaded by NIRF on its website, along with ranking, with regard to AMU, is in total variance to the data submitted by the AMU.

The NIRF website, according to Prof. Mansoor, shows that only 33 students were pursuing PHD as full-time candidates till 2017-18 and 219 under part-time programme. Similarly, the number of candidates having completed PhD were shown to be eight in 2016-17, 10 in 2017-18 and eight in 2018-19 under full time programme which is totally incorrect that brought down the university’s ranking from 18 previously to 31 in 2020.

VC said that computation of ranking of the AMU did not provide the factual picture based on the actual data submitted and verified by the university. The discrepancy in the number of overall Ph.D candidates enrolled at the university has resulted in a false steep decline in the university’s ranking.

Expressing concern for the lower rank of the AMU, VC pointed that higher NIRF ranking of the institution not only translated into better employment opportunities for the students, but it also formed an important basis for future funding, infrastructure support and other assistance by various governments and other agencies to the university. Further, higher ranking attracts better talents from among the students, employees and motivates the alumni to continue more vigorously in terms of funds and other support to their alma matter.