Drop in rankings, poor grades trigger demand for academic accountability

A closer look at the rankings of universities over the past five years shows that of the 16 state universities, only four have been able to figure in the top 100 rankings.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Academic circles have been debating the drop in the quality of higher education in the state over the years, but have not examined the issue in detail due to the lack of a concrete mechanism to gauge the decline.

The introduction of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), by the Union government in 2016, not only brought in a common yardstick for grading higher educational institutions across the country but also put the spotlight on the accountability of such institutions.