"You cannot improve ranking when there are so many agitations" Assam University's VC, DC Nath  

Torn by agitation, mismanagement and administrative callousness Assam University Silchar has dropped out of the NIRF’s top 100 education institutions in the country. Last year, in the same ranking the Assam University had declined to 97th position. One of the largest Central universities in the North East with so many departments is gradually falling apart.

“You cannot improve ranking when there are so many agitations,” says vice-chancellor of Assam University, Professor, Dilip Chandra Nath. “We are yet to the get the breakup, so at this stage, I don’t know where we lacked due to which we dropped out of the top 100. It could be because of new entry of high-quality institutions,” says the VC.

Nath is of the opinion that because of the constant agitation in the university, some key areas remain unattended. “When the agitations are so frequent it disrupts the entire functioning. This results in us missing little yet important factors which then costs us ranking slots,” adds the VC.

He asserts that the ranking of a university depends on various factors including infrastructure, academics but the two areas that cost Assam University Silchar heavily are public impression and research publication. “If we can improve our performance in these two areas then we will certainly rank higher,” shares Nath.

Nath feels it would not be fair to judge the University’s quality based on this year’s ranking. He also believes Assam University has more than what it takes to improve its ranking. “We have taken some strict actions last time and I am hopeful we will have fewer or no disruptions going forward. We have quality teachers in our University and I have full faith in them. But we need to let them do their work, it needs to be a collective effort from everyone. I have one year left in my tenure and I will try my best to improve the ranking, however, it needs to be teamwork,” concludes VC.

It is worth mentioning here that The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is a methodology adopted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, to rank institutions of higher education in India. The Framework was approved by the MHRD and launched by Minister of Human Resource Development on 29 September 2015.