Ranking status of SKUAST-Jammu further slips to record low

SKUAST-Kashmir continues to improve its position
Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Dec 6: Registering continuous decline in its performance, the status of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) Jammu has further slipped down from its previous positions in the latest ranking by the India Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi.
In the ICAR ranking status of Agriculture Universities for the year 2019, the position of SKUAST- Jammu has once again nosedived 13 notches from its previous place.
Sliding from position 15 in the year 2016 ranking to 24th place in 2017 and then skipping its participation in 2018, the SKUAST-Jammu has further downgraded its status to 37th place in the ICAR ranking for the year 2019, because of its poor performance on different fronts, including academics and research.
However, on the other hand, SKUAST Kashmir has continued to improve its ranking and stood at 12th place in the list of agriculture universities, one rank ahead of its previous year position and improvement of 15 grades from two years ago ranking.
In the ICAR ranking for the year 2018 and 2017, SKUAST Kashmir had secured 13th and 27th position respectively while it had not participated in 2016 ranking process.
As per the ranking list, based on the recommendations of the Committee and approved by the competent authority of ICAR, a number of newly established Agriculture Universities and ICAR Institutes have performed better than above two decades old SKUAST-Jammu and scored higher points.
ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal has once again topped and secured the first rank for the fourth consecutive year while Punjab Agriculture University Ludhiana has significantly improved its ranking to second position from number seven in the previous year. ICAR-Indian Agriculture Research, New Delhi, which had earlier managed to sustain its ranking status by remaining on number two position for two consecutive years, slipped to third place in the latest ranking. These three top Institutes will be awarded for their achievement in the annual day function of the ICAR.
ICAR-India Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, G B Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, Choudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University Hisar have secured 4th, 5th and 6th position, respectively.
Taking a cue from the MHRD, this ranking system has been introduced to help the Agriculture Universities across the country for self assessment on the parameters decided by ICAR, which is an autonomous body responsible for co-coordinating agricultural education and research in India.
The ICAR ranking is based on several parameters, including student and faculty profile, placement of students, publications in high ranking journals and citations, patents, technologies commercialized, revenue generation, improvement of genetic traits in crops, etc.
Last year a total of 60 Agriculture Universities from all over the country had participated in the ranking process while this number of participating institutes rose to 67 in the latest ranking list for the year 2019.