Mumbai University ranked 140th in Asia

At 140th in a pool of 200, the University of Mumbai's place in the Quacquarelli Symonds 2013 Asia-wide university rankings is 44 spots below its position just three years ago.

In 2010, the university was ranked 96th among 200 universities. A leading global provider of higher education information since 1990, Quacquarelli Symonds bases its rankings on nine differently weighted parameters.

Some of these parameters are academic reputation, employer reputation, papers per faculty, citations  per paper and faculty-to-student ratio.

Among the state's 13 non-agricultural universities, only the University of Mumbai and the University of Pune figure on the list of top 200 universities in Asia.

Mumbai University pro vice-chancellor Naresh Chandra said university rankings were a contentious issue.

Some college principals attributed the drop in rankings to diseconomies of scale, low teacher-to-student ratio and lack of funding.

Among the measures suggested by college principals to improve standards in higher education is a change in curricula and infrastructure in line with today's needs, which includes industrial tie-ups and an interdisciplinary approach to college education.

Other steps suggested are greater use of technology to streamline learning and more faculty employment to enable better research output.