Global Village Idiot: Pune needs better quality from its educational institutions

A city’s development has a lot to do with the quality of its educational institutions and a consciousness and pride to contribute to the nation and the world on the basis of its unique offerings

In September 2015, the Centre’s ministry of human resource development (MHRD) launched the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). NIRF outlined a methodology to rank institutions across India (which it has been actively updating) every year. The ranking parameters broadly cover “Teaching, Learning and Resources”, “Research and Professional Practices”, “Graduation Outcomes”, “Outreach and Inclusivity”, and “Perception”.

As parents and students, we have to be vigilant and demand higher quality, greater accountability from schools and colleges so that our present becomes a pathway to a better future. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

In 2016, the government of India reinvented an erstwhile government joint venture, Invest India, as a marvel of government vision and innovation. The country’s primary investment promotion agency, Invest India, is a true government-private collaboration with government owning 49% of equity stake (central 43.5% and various state governments 5.5%) and the remaining 51% held by FICCI, Nasscom, and CII, according to news reports.

Approximately seven years on, two recent updates from these two entities provide insights into what development has been happening across the country. They also serve as an indicator of government and private enterprise performance … and of Pune.

According to Invest India website, “India has emerged as the third largest ecosystem for startups globally with over 74,400 startups recognised by the DPIIT (department of promotion of industry and internal trade) across 653 districts of the country as of July 19, 2022. India ranks second in innovation quality with top positions in the quality of scientific publications and universities among middle-income economies.” As of July, there are 105 unicorns in India, and Pune has seven of these — Druva, Icertis, Mindtickle, ElasticRun, FirstCry, Xpressbees, and OneCard.

Also in July 2022, the latest rankings report from NIRF was published. It is an impressive document for the information it shares about the methodology, broad spectrum of stakeholders involved in providing recommendations and data, continuous improvement in its work (one can compare reports since 2016 to analyse the progressive updates). Of interest is that there are only four Pune institutions in the Top 100 overall - Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) 25, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) 26, Symbiosis International 62, and DY Patil Vidyapeeth at 76.

If we look at the region-wise distribution of ranked institutions in the Top 100 overall, southern region accounts for 36%, north 29%, west 20% (that’s where we belong), and eastern region has 15%. There are 11 ranking lists (1 overall and 10 categories), each with a Top 50 or 100 or 200 and a Top 5 or 10 (depending on volume of institutions). In 11 ranking lists (which means out of a possible 85 ranks), Pune has managed only 1 Top 10 and 1 Top 5 rank.

Quick question: In your opinion, which are the top 5 fields of education that Pune is known for? I used to think Pune was known for education in management, research, engineering, pharmacy and general education. Pune’s top 10 finishes are in law (Symbiosis Law School is ranked 3 among law schools) and dental education (DY Patil Vidyapeeth is ranked 3 in the country). Pune’s best finish in engineering is Defence Institute of Advanced Technology at 71 (COEP is at 72). The famed engineering colleges of MIT, Bharati Vidyapeeth and VIT don’t even make the Top 100 in India.

Among management education stalwarts, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM) is our best at number 17. The only other Pune college in the top 100 is Pune Institute of Business Management. In the Pharmacy Top 100, only Poona College of Pharmacy (21), DY Patil (41), AISSMS (76), MIT (87), and Marathwada Mitra Mandal College of Pharmacy (90) make the list. DY Patil makes the Top 50 medical colleges list at 17. Fergusson College ranked 57 is the only Pune college in the Top 100 colleges in the country. Among universities, SPPU (12), Symbiosis International (32), DY Patil Vidyapeeth (41), and Bharati Vidyapeeth (76) make the Top 100 cut from Pune. In the Top 50 in research, IISER at 17 is the only Pune representative.

With more than 1,300 colleges and 19 universities, I am not sure if this signifies encouraging prospects for the city’s education credentials. In the 2021-22 school rankings by Education World, Pune had only 3 in the Top 50 international day schools (only one in the international day-cum-residential category), 4 in the Top 50 Girls Day School, and 3 in Boys Day schools Top 50.

Somewhere in the last two decades, the boom in education business in Pune seems to have shifted focus from quality to quantity. There are Tier 1 and 2 cities that seem to have better quality offerings at the moment.

Why is the number of unicorns important in this conversation? Mainly because connecting the dots from educational institutions to startups to unicorns is one way of predicting the development of a digital age city. To refer to stats from a December 2021 article by Hindustan Times columnist Salil Urunkar, Pune has 3,200 startups registered with DPIIT, very close to Mumbai’s 3,274 startups. Mumbai has 6 institutions in the Top 100 overall, two in the Top 10 research institutions, and one each in the Top 10 of engineering, management and pharmacy colleges. Mumbai has 17 unicorns. Bengaluru has 40 unicorns, it also has the Number 1 ranked university in the country (seventh year consecutively), the Number 1 ranked research institute, number 1 ranked law school, Number 2 ranked management institute in the country, and number 4 ranked medical college.

I draw the comparisons with Mumbai and Bengaluru deliberately since education marketing professionals, industry, and media often compare Pune to these two cities as convenient to the narrative. It is important to note that according to a recent report by policy advisory Startup Genome, Bengaluru is ranked 5th in the world tech venture capital investments in 2022 (behind Silicon Valley, London, Greater Boston and New York). Mumbai is also on the list. Pune is not. Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi NCR together account for more than 75% of India’s investment receipts into startups - Bengaluru being the lead by far.

The point is: a city’s development has a lot to do with the quality of its educational institutions and a consciousness and pride to contribute to the nation and the world on the basis of its unique offerings. As a city we have to focus on launching initiatives within the robust national frameworks that are developing very rapidly. And while Pune institutions will always get business from outlying cities and towns, educationists have to keep in mind that not making it to national ranking lists will eventually lead to less students which would be a financial free-fall that marketing and cost cutting won’t address on annual balance sheets.

But the push may well have to come from the ground level, as a market force. As parents and students, we have to be vigilant and demand higher quality, greater accountability from schools and colleges so that our present becomes a pathway to a better future.

Sanjay Mukherjee, author, learning-tech designer and management consultant, is founder of Mountain Walker and chief strategy advisor, Peak Pacific. He can be reached at thebengali@icloud.com