A drop in two assessment parameters — graduation outcomes and perception — has led to Jadavpur University’s steep slide in this year’s NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework) rankings for engineering colleges.
JU has slipped to 18th, its lowest rank since NIRF was launched in 2015. Last year, it ranked 12th.
This year, JU scored 71.46 in graduation outcomes and 37 in perception, compared to 76.55 and 41.13 respectively in 2024.
The graduation outcomes metric assesses factors such as the percentage of undergraduate and postgraduate students placed in the past three years, their median salary, and the number of PhD graduates. The perception score is based on surveys among employers, professionals, and academics to gauge their candidate preferences.
A senior JU official said that the drop should serve as a wake-up call. “We may celebrate being ranked the top state public university in the NIRF this year, but we cannot ignore the slide in engineering, which used to be our forte. If this continues, the bright students who still come to JU will start avoiding the university,” the official said.
Pro-vice-chancellor Amitava Datta, a former dean of engineering, also expressed concern. “We have been nudged past by several NITs. Though we’re glad to top state public universities, we must understand what’s behind the fall in engineering rankings,” Datta told Metro.
Institutes like NIT Tiruchirappalli, NIT Rourkela, and NIT Surathkal now rank above JU in engineering.
An official said while the university highlights a few students getting ₹1 crore offers, the overall median salary has remained unimpressive.
“One or two crore-plus offers don’t paint the full picture. If placements were that strong, we wouldn’t be left with so many vacant BTech seats every year. The median can only rise if more top-ranking students choose JU,” the official said.
On September 17, 2024, Metro reported JU had to conduct independent counselling to fill 150 of 1,253 BTech seats left vacant after two rounds of centralised counselling. In 2023, 138 seats remained vacant, including in high-demand streams like computer science and electronics and telecommunication.
“These seats are eventually filled by students with lower ranks in Bengal JEE. That affects the university’s profile and damages its perception score,” the official said.
A senior teacher added that a severe funds crunch is choking JU: “State and central funding has dried up. The fees are the lowest among tech institutes, so there’s little internal revenue. We can’t invest in labs or infrastructure. Poor facilities are pushing bright students elsewhere.”