Governor concerned over poor ranking of Maha universities

Maharashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao today expressed serious concern over the poor ranking of universities from Maharashtra at the national level and asked vice-chancellors to prepare a detailed strategy for improving their standing.

All universities in Maharashtra except Pune were ranked above 150 in the National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF) declared by the HRD ministry recently. The Pune university was ranked ninth in the list of best varsities in the country.

The governor, who is also chancellor of universities in the state, emphasised on the need of examination reforms.

Referring to the 'serious negligence' in the evaluation of papers and declaration of results in the University of Mumbai, he asked VCs to accord top priority to declaration of results of all exams in a time-bound manner.

Rao called for according top priority to examination reforms, including end-to-end computerisation.

The governor was addressing a meeting of vice- chancellors and pro vice-chancellors of non-agricultural universities in Maharashtra at Sahyadri Guest House here. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was also present.

Asking universities to form a task force for conducting academic audit, the governor urged them to take appropriate action against institutions which have substandard infrastructure and large deficiencies in teaching and non- teaching staff.

Referring to the issue of performance appraisal of VCs, Rao said, "We need to put in place a mechanism for performance appraisal of vice-chancellors so as to bring better accountability in the system."