Pune: Strong international engagement helped Symbiosis International (Deemed University) top Pune’s universities in the QS Asia University Rankings 2027, climbing 25 places to 175 from 200 last year. Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), despite strong research scores, slipped 67 places to 274 from 207, while Dr D Y Patil Vidyapeeth (DPU), Pimpri, fell from 569 to 584.Symbiosis’ performance was driven by its internationalisation scores, which surpassed those of several leading Indian institutions on individual parameters. It scored 97.9 in inbound student exchange, 96.4 in outbound exchange and 74.1 in international students. Its international faculty score of 68.2 was significantly higher than SPPU’s 1 and DPU’s 24.8. Its employer reputation score of 82.1 also put it ahead of the two other Pune universities.However, the gap between Pune’s institutions and the country’s top performers remains considerable. IIT Delhi led Indian institutions with an overall score of 77.9 and ranked 66th in Asia.SPPU vice-chancellor Suresh Gosavi and pro-vice-chancellor Parag Kalkar did not respond to requests for comment.Symbiosis chancellor Vidya Yeravdekar, chancellor of Symbiosis International, attributed the improvement to sustained efforts and accurate data submission. She credited vice-chancellor Ramakrishnan Raman and the university’s Quality Management and Benchmarking department for strengthening its performance. Internationalisation, she said, had been central to the institution since its inception.“Traditional universities, including the IITs, may not have scored as well on the international students parameter because of regulations that could restrict their intake of foreign students,” she said.Yeravdekar said research remained a challenge for Indian universities, partly because the education system encouraged learning over questioning. “As a result, we have very good teachers but comparatively fewer researchers. Research funding is another challenge,” she said.Symbiosis has a central research department, but Yeravdekar said stronger focus on humanities, social sciences, management and law shaped its research output. Health sciences and engineering were added only a few years ago, and faculty in these disciplines tended to publish more research papers. “Finding a good teacher who is also a good researcher is a challenge, and finding people who excel at both is even more difficult,” she said.Meanwhile, DPU scored higher than both Symbiosis and SPPU in parameters such as faculty-student ratio and the proportion of staff with PhDs.DPU vice-chancellor NJ Pawar said the university had improved in around nine parameters over the previous year but was at a disadvantage as a primarily medical institution — medical students were more inclined towards professional degrees than research-oriented PhDs, affecting the university’s research-related scores.“Secondly, the equivalence of MD/MS with PhD is not clear as per ranking parameters. This creates skewed data that is largely beneficial to traditional universities. We are gradually expanding into other disciplines, but it will take time for this to reflect in our rankings,” Pawar said.
