A prominent University of Delhi college listed in its 2025 submission for a nationwide academic annual ranking exercise at least 15 teachers who had left the institution months to years earlier, an investigation by The Telegraph has found.

Hansraj College, which draws students from across India, included the names of the 15 former ad-hoc or guest teachers in its list of 316 faculty sent to the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) assessment conducted by the Union education ministry.

The faculty-to-student ratio is among the metrics the NIRF uses in ranking.

Hansraj College has denied wrongdoing and said the data submitted “was strictly in accordance with the norms and guidelines” prescribed by the NIRF.

A chemistry teacher on the list had left before December 2022, two botany teachers before October 2023 and July 2024, two zoology teachers before January 2022 and July 2024, two English teachers before October 2022 and July 2024, a history teacher before January 2022, a maths teacher before January 2022, a Sanskrit teacher before April 2023, two computer science teachers before July 2024, a physics teacher before April 2024, and two other teachers before July 2024.

All 15 contacted by this correspondent requested anonymity, citing fears of retribution, as some are working in other colleges. One now employed in another city said: “How could I be working where I am and also hundreds of kilometres away?”

The findings align with an anonymous letter sent last week to several central education authorities alleging that Hansraj College had inflated faculty numbers in its NIRF submission, showing 55 former faculty, including ad-hoc, guest and retired teachers, as working in 2024-25.

The complaint lands against the backdrop of unease about the NIRF within the academic community.

Six months ago, 11 leading Indian scientists, in a joint letter to higher education authorities, warned that the pursuit of high NIRF rankings had fostered “corruption and unethical practices” in institutions and encouraged number-driven tactics over genuine academic quality. They urged a shift toward qualitative assessments less vulnerable to manipulation.

“The evidence points to inclusion of non-existent faculty members solely to artificially inflate the rankings,” the anonymous letter said. Annexures included with the letter show the college’s 2025 NIRF submission alongside lists of former teachers no longer on its rolls.

The alleged misrepresentation coincides with a sharp rise in the college’s rank — from 12th in 2024 to 3rd in 2025 — among colleges nationwide. The 2025 NIRF assessment placed Hindu College at rank 1 and Miranda House at rank 2.

The letter, sent to the university vice-chancellor and the higher education secretary, among other officials, said the manipulation had compromised the integrity of the ranking system and raised questions about the NIRF’s ability to detect such practices.

Hansraj principal Dr Rama said in an email to this newspaper: “All required fields, documentary proofs, and quantitative indicators were furnished as per relevant assessment year.”

A follow-up query from this newspaper asking whether NIRF guidelines allow the inclusion of teachers no longer working at the college is yet to elicit a response.

At least five retired teachers whom the college itself listed in its NIRF submission for 2025 as no longer on its rolls still appear in the faculty count.

The concerns flagged by the 11 scientists in June have echoed among others whosay the incentives embedded in the rankings framework have distorted institutional behaviour.

“The Hansraj situation is unlikely to be an isolated case,” said Subhash Lakhotia, emeritus professor of zoology at Banaras Hindu University, who is among those urging revisions in the ranking methodology. Lakhotia has earlier expressed concern about unethical practices in the publishing of research papers.

“The gaming that happens in data about research can also happen for other quantitative parameters such as the numbers of faculty, especially because there is no independent audit or verification of the data submitted,” Lakhotia said.

The anonymous letter also alleged that data submitted by Hansraj College to accreditation and ranking agencies show “a substantial and unexplained increase” of about 100 faculty members.

The college has a sanctioned strength of 219 posts, and its submissions to an accreditation agency between 2017 and 2022 listed faculty counts of 230 or fewer. But its submission to the NIRF listed 311 faculty in 2022-23, 334 in 2023-24, and 316 in 2024-25.