{"id":795,"date":"2026-07-06T07:03:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T12:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/blog\/?p=795"},"modified":"2026-07-06T07:12:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T12:12:03","slug":"the-degree-that-disappeared-from-indias-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/blog\/personal\/the-degree-that-disappeared-from-indias-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"The Degree That Disappeared from India&#8217;s Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What happens when a discipline is so interdisciplinary that it vanishes from our imagination?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last week, I received the latest double issue of <em>The Week<\/em>. Like millions of readers, I eagerly turned to its annual rankings of India&#8217;s best colleges. Engineering. Medicine. Law. Business. Fashion. Hotel Management. Dentistry. Journalism. Architecture. Design. Virtually every discipline seemed represented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Out of curiosity, I looked for my alma mater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I graduated from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, in the late 1970s with a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Animal Sciences. It was one of India&#8217;s finest agricultural institutions, established during the Green Revolution, and it produced generations of scientists, administrators, entrepreneurs and policy makers who helped shape India&#8217;s food security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But there was no category where my college belonged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not because it had fallen in standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because the category itself had disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That prompted me to pull out my nearly fifty-year-old academic transcript. Reproduced below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As I read through it, I realized something remarkable &#8211; not about the university, but about the education it offered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My degree was called <strong>Agriculture Hons in<\/strong> <strong>Animal Sciences<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet the subjects I studied included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Veterinary Medicine<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Animal Physiology<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nutrition<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Genetics<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Biochemistry<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Microbiology<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Botany<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Crop Production<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Plant Breeding<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Soil Science<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Agricultural Ecology<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Water Management<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Agricultural Economics<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Farm Management<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rural Sociology<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Statistics<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mathematics<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Physics<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Food Science<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dairy Technology<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>English<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Punjabi<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Extension Education<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Agricultural Engineering<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Field Training<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pause for a moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today these subjects belong to different schools, departments and, in many universities, entirely different campuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In today&#8217;s world, I would probably have needed admissions into five or six different colleges to receive the same intellectual exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet, in the 1970s, all of this formed one coherent education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a>We Have Become Masters of Specialisation<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The modern university celebrates specialists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We rank engineering colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We rank medical colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We rank business schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We rank law schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We rank fashion schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But who ranks institutions that deliberately teach students to think across biology, medicine, engineering, ecology, economics, statistics and society?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Increasingly, nobody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And that is worrying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a>The Problems We Face Refuse to Stay Inside Departments<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Climate change is not an environmental problem alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is an agricultural problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A public health problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An engineering problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An economic problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A behavioural science problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An AI problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Food security is not just about crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is about soil microbiology, logistics, nutrition, genetics, climate, markets, public policy and consumer behaviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pandemics are not merely medical events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They involve veterinarians, ecologists, statisticians, behavioural scientists, economists and communication experts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet our educational ecosystem &#8211; and even our rankings &#8211; continue to slice knowledge into increasingly narrower compartments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a>What We Choose to Rank Shapes What We Choose to Value<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">College rankings influence students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They influence parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They influence donors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They influence policymakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They influence careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When rankings ignore interdisciplinary education, they silently tell society that such education matters less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That may be the most damaging message of all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a>The World Is Moving in the Opposite Direction<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ironically, the technologies that will define the next fifty years demand exactly the kind of education many agricultural universities quietly provided decades ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Artificial Intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Synthetic Biology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Precision Agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Climate Adaptation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Food Systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One Health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carbon Markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Regenerative Agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These fields do not respect departmental boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Neither does reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The future belongs to people who can connect disciplines &#8211; not merely master one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a>Perhaps Agricultural Universities Were Ahead of Their Time<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For decades, agricultural universities have produced graduates comfortable discussing microbes, markets, machinery, meteorology and medicine in the same conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That breadth was never considered glamorous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, it is becoming indispensable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe the problem is not that agricultural education became irrelevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe our definition of relevance became too narrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a>A Challenge for India&#8217;s Ranking Agencies<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perhaps it is time for <em>The Week<\/em>, Hansa Research, NIRF and other ranking bodies to ask a larger question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead of ranking only disciplines, should we also recognise institutions that produce <strong>systems thinkers<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Universities where students routinely cross the boundaries of biology, engineering, economics, environment and society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Institutions preparing graduates for problems that do not arrive neatly labelled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because the future will not be built by engineers alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or doctors alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or economists alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It will be built by people who understand how all these worlds connect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perhaps India&#8217;s forgotten agricultural universities have been teaching that lesson for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We simply stopped looking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What do you think? Have we become so obsessed with specialisation that we&#8217;ve overlooked the value of truly interdisciplinary education? I&#8217;d love to hear from alumni of agricultural, veterinary, forestry, fisheries, environmental and other multidisciplinary institutions. What did your curriculum prepare you for that conventional rankings fail to recognise?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Academic-Record_Animal-Sciences.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"560\" src=\"https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Academic-Record_Animal-Sciences-1024x560.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-797\" srcset=\"https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Academic-Record_Animal-Sciences-1024x560.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Academic-Record_Animal-Sciences-300x164.jpg 300w, https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Academic-Record_Animal-Sciences-768x420.jpg 768w, https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Academic-Record_Animal-Sciences-1536x840.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Academic-Record_Animal-Sciences.jpg 1976w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What happens when a discipline is so interdisciplinary that it vanishes from our imagination? Last week, I received the latest double issue of The Week. Like millions of readers, I eagerly turned to its annual rankings of India&#8217;s best colleges. Engineering. Medicine. Law. Business. Fashion. Hotel Management. Dentistry. Journalism. Architecture. Design. Virtually every discipline seemed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":802,"href":"https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795\/revisions\/802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anilchopra.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}