Mysuru:  The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) has announced the yearly Ranking yesterday and sadly the century-old University of Mysore, is missing from the list.

Last year the University with 42.82 marks was placed 36 among the Universities in the country and overall 57th and had bagged the first place in the State. However, in 2018 its name does not figure in the list.

There are many reasons attributed to the University not finding its name in the list and the main one is that the quality of education imparted is going down and the second one is the sinking number of teaching faculty in the departments. However, even in 2016, the University was not able to find a place in the ranking list.

Only recently the University Grants Commission (UGC) had placed University of Mysore under ‘Category 2’ by granting it full autonomous status and also it is the only University in the State to get this status.

Speaking to Star of Mysore on condition of anonymity, a  source close to the University, said this morning that they were shocked to find the University’s name missing from the list even while UGC has granted it the autonomous status.

Asked whether lack of faculty was one of the main reasons, the source revealed that there was always this apprehension, as a Ministry of HRD Deputy Secretary, who had visited the University recently, had warned that with more than 75 per cent vacancies the University in the future would be deprived for many considerations.

“With many senior faculties retiring every year, there are hardly any permanent teaching faculty left and it is mostly with the help of guest faculty that the University is being run. However, since most of them are only involved in teaching and not in research and publication, their credentials cannot be taken into account. All these factors are harming us,” said a Professor who has just now retired.

Will this also affect the Institution of Eminence status that the University had applied? “We could apply for Institution of Eminence status as we had the 36th rank last year. But we do not know how it will affect us next time,” said another source in the Administrative Department.

Meanwhile, Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bengaluru, was adjudged the overall best institution among the Universities in the country, followed by Jawaharlal Nehru University and Benares Hindu University.