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Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025: PU retains spot in 601-800 bracket
While Panjab University maintained its position within this bracket, it improved its overall score from 37-41.8 in the 2024 edition to 38.2-43.2 this year; in 2023, it was in the 29.8 to 33.9 bracket
Panjab University (PU) has secured a place in the 601-800 bracket for the second consecutive year in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2025, announced on Wednesday.
While PU maintained its position within this bracket, it improved its overall score from 37-41.8 in the 2024 edition to 38.2-43.2 this year. In 2023, it was in the 29.8 to 33.9 bracket.
In the 601-800 bracket, PU ranks alongside other Indian institutions such as Aligarh Muslim University and Banaras Hindu University from Uttar Pradesh, as well as the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani.
In the region, Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences holds the best rank in the 401-500 bracket, with only the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, ranking higher at 251-300 in India. Shoolini is tied with several other Indian universities, including Anna University in Tamil Nadu and Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam.
Chitkara University, Rajpura, and Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology are also in the 601-800 bracket, while Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar falls in the 801-1,000 bracket.
Lags in research quality lags, but score up in all other parameters
The THE rankings are based on five parameters (see box), and while PU has improved in four of them, PU’s score fell from 67.9 last year to 65.6 this year in research quality.
Speaking about the drop, PU vice-chancellor Renu Vig said, “Research quality has to do with the number of publications, citations and its impact factor. This is a variable amount, as sometimes the papers have been filed by the PU faculty but are yet to be published by the journals and the rankings only consider published papers. So there can be a small variation.”
Other universities in the region have performed better in research quality. Shoolini University has scored 87.2 in comparison. Vig added that they expect that the varsity’s scores will improve further in the next edition of the ranking.
While the university had been losing out on the international outlook parameter in previous years, this time it has been able to improve its score marginally. The highest jump came in the teaching parameter, where the score went up from 32.6 in the last edition to 35.7 this year.
