The University of Hyderabad (UoH) has been ranked 2nd among India’s Top 36 Best General Government Universities by the India Today and published in the magazine issue dated July 1, 2019. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is at first place. UoH has been ranked among the top based on the survey conducted by the Marketing and Development Research Associates (MDRA). It examined the country’s Universities in four streams, general (arts, science and commerce), technical, medical and legal. Universities that offer postgraduate courses in these streams were considered.
Responding to the rankings UoH Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Appa Rao Podile said, “It’s wonderful to see the University being recognized for its meritorious work and research contributions. Moving up from being 5th in 2017; 3rd in 2018 and now 2nd in 2019, it will be a challenging task for all of us to perform better. I am hopeful we will be able to keep up this growth. The University will continue to focus on providing quality education and research along with state-of-the-art infrastructure which will propel us into among the league of the best Universities in the World. I strongly believe that we have the potential to do even better and continue to be a University of Eminence.
The India Today Best Universities survey, A list of 700 universities was generated, based on secondary data sources, such as the Internet, published reports and the Association of Indian Universities Handbook, and suggestions from experts. Between November 2018 and May 2019, experts across the country were asked to rank these universities. The experts, deans, registrars, department heads, professors, were not allowed to rate their own university.
The rankings were done on the following parameters:
· Intake Quality and Governance
· Academic and Research Excellence
· Infrastructure and Living Experience
· Personality and Leadership Development
· Career Progression and Placement
The ratings of experts determined the perceptual rank of a university. In the next stage, the universities were contacted for factual data. Comprehensive objective questionnaire was designed for each category.
The factual data was sought on these parameters: admissions and students’ performance, infrastructure, placements, academic input, research and publication, awards, industry interface and faculty. All factual information provided by a university was checked and in many cases physical audits were conducted to verify the objective data provided by the University. Perceptual survey was carried out among experts across cities all over the country.
The universities that did not provide factual data were not considered. The perceptual rank and the factual rank were combined to derive the final rankings.