The city that mostly lives in its past glory has something to cheer for in the present-day: a recent international ranking has adjudged the University of Calcutta as the best among Indian universities.
Among the Indian institutions listed in the 2021 Academic Ranking of World Universities — or the Shanghai Ranking — the University of Calcutta (in the 601-700 rank range) comes behind only the Indian Institute of Science (in the 401-500 rank range) but is ahead of other top universities in the country and even the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Worldwide, Harvard University has been ranked the best.
The University of Calcutta is followed by the Banaras Hindu University, University of Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University and three IITs (Delhi, Kharagpur and Madras), all of which figure in the 701-800 rank range. These, in turn, are followed by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and Vellore Institute of Technology (all in 801-900), and the Aligarh Muslim University, Anna University, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (all in the 901-1000 range).
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote on Twitter: “Extremely pleased to share that 2021 Academic Ranking of World Universities has informed the Government of West Bengal that Calcutta University is one of the top ranking universities in India! Congratulations to all teachers, administration staff and our dear students.”
Prof. Ishita Mukhopadhyay, one of the senior most professors at the university and who teaches economics there, told The Hindu: “It has been always true for our academics to focus less on advertising their work and more on the work itself. We have diverse disciplines ranging from social sciences, law, technology, and natural and biological sciences. We also had a caveat for interdisciplinary courses and research programmes. The range is terrific. Our university has been already in global map. Any ranking shouldn’t come as a surprise.”
