Sathya Sai Baba’s [Deemed] University

The authoritative website www.topuniversities.com ranks the top 400 universities in the world. Of these, there are three in India (Delhi ranked no. 254, Indian Institute of technology Bombay ranked 269 and Indian Institute of technology Delhi ranked 307. None of these universities, however rank at all as to specific subjects, nor as to peer review or citations, employer review, international staff or students, staff/student ratio. So there is unfortunately still a long way to go even for India’s best educational institutions.

Notable is the fact that The Sathya Sai Baba (Deemed) University is not on any list at all, though Sai Baba and some Indian educators boast that it is something unique. It was for decades not recognised as a full university even in India, though it is now allowed to use that title - probably because of Sai Baba’s political influence. There is no evidence that any serious academic or other education body has carried out any evaluation of th standards of this ‘university’, so the change of name (dropping the ‘deemed’) is suspicious and smacks of simple political manipulation. That it is not unique in educational standards for vertain, but doubtless it is unique in the amount of moralism students have to hear on a daily basis throughout their studies.