Cambridge University's low ranking not linked to Rahul Gandhi’s recent visit
A screenshot of The Guardian report about the fall of Cambridge University’s ranking to its lowest ever in the world university table has been doing the rounds on social media.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 7 March 2023 11:14 AM GMT
(Screengrab source: Twitter)
Hyderabad: A screenshot of The Guardian report about the fall of Cambridge University’s ranking to its lowest-ever in the world university table has been doing the rounds on social media.
A Twitter user shared the screenshot and wrote, “Is this a coincidence.” (Archive)
(Screengrab source: Twitter)
Several other Twitter and Facebook users claimed that the fall in Cambridge University’s ranking is linked to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s recent visit to the university. Click here to see more posts.
On 28 February, Rahul Gandhi delivered a lecture at Cambridge where he spoke on the Congress party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, the attack on Indian democracy and institutions, and the attack on minorities among other issues.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the report dates back to 2019 and is true but it has no link to Rahul Gandhi’s recent visit to Cambridge.
We ran a keyword search and found that the report by The Guardian was published on 19 July 2019. It said Brexit and the financial squeeze affected the ranking of British universities in international league tables for the third year in a row.
The report said the data and research group QS which compiled the international university league table downgraded two-thirds of the 84 UK universities ranked in the top 1,000 since 2017. It further said Oxford’s ranking increased from fifth to fourth overall, however, its ancient rival Cambridge slipped to its lowest-ever position from sixth to seventh because of declining research performance.
Quoting Ben Sowter, QS’s director of research, The Guardian said Cambridge’s drop in ranking is not because the institution is struggling, but it reflects rebalancing by spending more on teaching than on research.
It is evident that the viral report is about Cambridge’s lowest-ever ranking in 2019 because of multiple reasons and is not linked to Rahul Gandhi’s recent visit to the university. Hence, we conclude that the claim is misleading.
