Mumbai: Only one college of Mumbai has made it to the list of the top 100 colleges declared by the ministry of human resources and development (MHRD). City colleges claim they have not secured the national rank for lack of various parameters, which affects the academic and overall development of students, teachers and institutions. St. Xavier’s College, Fort, has secured the 96th position in the college category under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) for 2019. The NIRF, started by the MHRD, aims to rank all educational institutions of India every year, based on various parameters.
The ranking also helps institutions to improve their academic performance in order to gain funding and grants. Students revealed their colleges have not secured a national rank as they do not have any scope for global exposure. Yasmin Shaikh, a student, said, “We do not have a single project or assignment which provides us with the opportunity to do some field work outside our college. We are restricted to our daily college activities and there is no scope to even go and explore the education system in other states of India.”
This means there can be no brainstorming of ideas, which in turn affects their research projects, according to students. Bharat Diwan, a student, said, “We cannot come up with ideas which can work at the national level because we are never exposed to the projects submitted at the national level. We have no exposure of the education scenario in foreign countries, so we are unable to broaden our perspectives in terms of research and projects.” College authorities claim lack of funding and quality research affects academic performance.
The principal of a suburban college said, “We do not get funds to organise an annual industrial visit (IV) for students, where they can actually visit industries and understand mechanisms first-hand. If students are not exposed to such ground experiences, how can we expect good quality research from them.” Both teachers and students should be assessed for their work, claimed authorities of colleges. A senior teacher of St Xavier’s College said, “If we can have internal assessment for students every week, then we should assess the work of teachers too. This will help keep a tab and also encourage teachers to upgrade their skills constantly.”
