The SPPU Senate is scheduled for September 30, and the slide in rankings is expected to be a major point of discussion there as well.The recent drop in National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking was a major topic of discussion at a meeting of the Management Council of Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) today. The university was ranked 91 in the Overall category in this year’s ranking, a big slide from rank 37 it achieved last year. The meeting lasted for four hours, of which over two hours were spent in discussing the ranking drop.Dr Jyotsna Ekbode, a member of the council, told The Indian Express, “All of us have felt very disappointed about these rankings, including the Vice-Chancellor. Our university that we say is number 1 in Maharashtra, has fallen in the ranking. The main point raised by everybody was that the number of faculty is extremely small. Teachers, and even non-teaching staff. The university is running on one-third of the required staff. Even the non-teaching staff get exhausted. We are hearing that 111 people will be hired in the last two years, but there is no progress on that either.”She added, “We have decided that we will introspect and call for some corrective measures. We had other agendas discussed today as well, but all members spoke on this.. Even though as council members we don’t teach or do research at the university, we are also at fault and no one is denying that something has gone wrong.”Sagar Vaidya, another member, said, “A detailed analysis was done in today’s Management Council meeting regarding the decline in the ranking. While the mistakes were highlighted, it was decided to carry out work on future opportunities. Professor recruitment is definitely a reason but apart from that, the members have decided to work on a ‘plan of success’ regarding research, public perception, examinations, hostels etc.”Vice-Chancellor Suresh Gosavi said, “We have tried to analyse where we are lagging behind so that we can overcome it in due time. It was a discussion with the members, the data is there and we tried to see how to fix it. For example, how many economically and socially challenged students join the college is dynamic data and it changes every year. Diversity of students is not in anyone’s hand. We are still working on the complete data analysis.”In a statement shared after the rankings were released, the University blamed the slide on a decrease in faculty numbers due to retirement and increase in student numbers due to the Union Government’s New Education Policy.The SPPU Senate is scheduled for September 30, and the slide in rankings is expected to be a major point of discussion there as well.Soham is a Correspondent with the Indian Express in Pune. A journalism graduate, he was a fact-checker before joining the Express. Soham currently covers education and is also interested in civic issues, health, human rights, and politics. ... Read MoreClick here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:pune